Motorists have had to take alternate routes after a huge hole was dug and left on a major road for a month and counting, in Blairgowrie.
The suburb is looking like a war zone, said Ward 99 councillor Nicole van Dyk, but the largest of all trenches marring its streets lies on the corner of Barkston Drive and Mackay Avenue/Grove Street – a major thoroughfare.
Since December, traffic has been building up as either motorists dodge the enormous hole on Barkston Drive, or those coming from Mackay Avenue heading west to where the road changes to Grove Street, must turn around as it covers the whole width of the road.
“It is Joburg Water’s reinstatement and I first escalated it in early December,” Van Dyk told Randburg Sun.
“They have not given me a time frame of when we can expect it to be sorted. When they first dug it up there were no warnings put around it and I heard a car drove into it. Now there are yellow barriers and tape, which has fallen over and you can see Joburg Water has not been to the site since.”
There has been a long-standing issue of who should reinstate roads after burst water pipes damage them, with Joburg Water and Joburg Roads Agency each pointing fingers at each other, he added.
“It is like watching a soccer match between the two.”
“We have even been told Joburg Water suggested they will only repair the roads if Joburg Roads Agency pays for their contractors. Sometimes when the roads are ‘fixed’ they just fill it with sand and it leaves our roads in a worse state than before.”
After Randburg Sun brought the matter to the attention of Joburg Water spokesperson Puleng Mopeli, she said, “It usually takes 14 days for reinstatement but [I] will need [the reference number] to track and status and provide proper feedback. I will check with the depot as well.”
She confirmed it was Joburg Water’s responsibility to do reinstatements, not the Joburg Roads Agency.
Questions were sent to Joburg Roads Agency spokesperson Kelebogile Mafa and her comments will also be published when they are made.
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