Provincial traffic officers had their hands full with drivers ignoring the detour last week. Some took the crossing between Welverdiend and Deelkraal that has been cordoned-off as if they were going to Doornfontein, only to drive over the sagging road next to the sinkhole.
Others, including some truck drivers, ignored the barricade and even moved the barriers when there were no traffic officers around, usually when they changed shifts.
On Thursday, 24 January, however, Covalent Water Company, obtained permission from the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral), to whom the road belongs, to dig a trench across it.
Covalent employs 134 people, many of whom are former employees of Blyvoor Gold Mine. It has been pumping water from the old Blyvoor 4 and 6 shafts since Blyvoor’s liquidation in 2014 to ensure that the mines in the area do not flood, especially AngloGold Ashanti’s operations.
The pipe from the mines to the Wonderfonteinspruit was so close to the sinkhole that it was slightly damaged and had to be moved. From around 14:00 on Friday, employees of Covalent started digging a trench across the road to relay the pipe.
Sand berms were also erected to make sure that no one attempts to drive through the site. Covalent has also put up many extra sig
ns to warn drivers that the road is closed.
‘The berms will stay in place until all the sinkhole repairs have been completed,’ says Covalent’s chief of operations, Mr Japie Harmse.
It has also come to light that the sinkhole, might, indeed, have been caused by the activity of illegal miners. The authorities initially thought the unusually high rainfall had caused it but they later discovered, a massive leak at a Rand Water pipeline that also supplies water to Blyvoor Shaft 5.
The spill, believed to have been caused by the zama-zamas, was repaired shortly afterwards.
The sinkhole is situated in the area most frequented by the zama-zamas. The illegal miners did not even try to hide when the Covalent employees started working on the road last Friday.
Three of them sat and watched the work from under a tree, while others casually crossed the site as they ‘changed shifts’.
In the meantime, investigations were still underway this week to make sure that safe alternative routes were available for road users who usually travel on the section of the R501 that is now closed.
On 23 January, employees of the Gauteng traffic and roads departments, together with a municipal traffic officer, did site inspections at the roads from Welverdiend to Deelkraal and the main road to Welverdiend.
The officials checked what repairs had to be done to make these routes safe for the extra vehicles that will be using them until the R501 has been repaired.