Trench across road in Cresta is ‘an accident waiting to happen’
Motorists take risks to circumnavigate trench on Woodley Avenue after Johannesburg Water fails to repair road after reinstatement.
Aside from being a nuisance and an eyesore, a trench in the ground across half the width of Woodley Road, Cresta, has motorists driving onto the kerb or into oncoming traffic.
Doing this to avoid damage to their vehicles is ironic, said resident Jan Bosman. “Often there will be a queue of cars trying to get around the hole in the road,” he complained. “Sometimes drivers are impatient, and they take risks. There is a créche in this street and this is an accident waiting to happen.”
Bosman said the trench was dug by Johannesburg Water during a repair to a burst water pipe earlier in the year, but they never returned to fix the road. He has been emailing Johannesburg Water and Johannesburg Roads Agency, as well as the City of Johannesburg’s email address for general complaints, joburgconnect@joburg.org.za, regularly since May but only received a reference number from them on August 26.
Ward 98 councillor Beverley Jacobs said she has escalated the query with Joburg Water, and other than Bosman’s emails she has received complaints from other residents about them struggling to log issues.
Roads agency spokesperson Bertha Peters-Scheepers said they have logged new requests and the agency will repair the road from the end of next month.
Joburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala confirmed that the entity was aware of the issue.
“Johannesburg Water is scheduled to perform the backfilling of the trench, and the subsequent tar reinstatement will be carried out by Johannesburg Water’s contracted team,” Shabalala said.
“A team will be dispatched to the site to conduct an assessment in order to determine the nature and extent of the work that needs to be undertaken. This assessment will be crucial in determining the appropriate allocation of tasks to the respective teams, ensuring an efficient and targeted approach to the job.”
For this reason, she could not confirm when the reinstatement would take place.
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