WARD 34 councillor Bobby Maharajh has called for urgent action to address a road collapse on Kenville Road.
More than a week ago, one side of the road began caving in and ultimately collapsed, causing significant damage to the road surface.
For Maharajh, the collapse is all too familiar as another road, hundreds of metres away, also suffered a similar fate, leading to a prolonged state where the road became impassable.
“We are not sure what has caused the latest collapse, but unfortunately, it also led to the water pipe feeding residents on Kenville Road being damaged. While the broken pipe was replaced and fixed, the situation is dire. The area has been marked off with warning tape, but I fear that more rains and further weakening to the road structure could cause the hole to widen.
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“Kenville Road has now been reduced to one lane at this particular point. At the moment, the lower half of the road is under construction to connect a bridge from Kenville Road to Sea Cow Lake Road. That bridge has not been opened to motorists, and if the collapse gets any worse, hundreds of residents could be left stranded as this is the only road in and out of the area,” he said.
Maharajh added that he feared the issue could mirror another road collapse on Kew Road, which took years to repair.
“A similar situation unfolded on Kew Road which is hundreds of metres away from this collapse. It took several years for the repairs to be completed, but it got to such a stage that no vehicle could bypass or drive around the collapse. If urgent action isn’t taken here, this could be disastrous. I have been in touch with the relevant departments of the eThekwini Municipality, but there are no timelines on when the repairs will be carried out or who is responsible for the collapse,” he said.
His comments were echoed by Kenville resident Patrick Budhram.
“We’ve seen major cracks appear on the road, and I’ve had firsthand experience of how the situation could get worse. I think this road is going to need to have a retaining wall or some sort of structural strengthening before it can be driven on. I fear the repair work will take some time, and I hope the collapse doesn’t widen,” he said.
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