Road users in Randgate were welcomed by the smell of tar on Monday morning, 22 August, as the upgrading of Botha Street began.
At about 7.30am, workers from the Rand West City Local Municipality‘s Department of Infrastructure arrived on site – fully geared up to start laying the new road surface. By 5pm, they had re-tarred about half the street and promised to continue work the next day.
Site manager Brook Ngwenya said they expect the road to be completely re-tarred by Wednesday, 24 August. “It is expected that we will be finished by Wednesday, but this all depends on our materials arriving on time,” Ngwenya said.
Sina Erasmus, the councillor for Ward 4, said she’s very pleased about the project. “The street has been the origin of much worry for the residents as the nearby school ensures a steady stream of young pupils roaming the area daily. With cars swerving left and right in an attempt to miss the potholes, the residents worried for the safety of the children, who might be run over.”
She said the road is also used as a connecting road by truck drivers heading towards Ventersdorp Road from the R41. “The road had many potholes and residents often complained about damaging their cars after driving there,” she said.
Tshidiso Tlharipe, spokesperson for the Rand West City Local Municipality said a thorough analysis of the road and community member outcries had indicated that the road surface was a problem that needed to be solved.
“We used a process which is based on budget and resources to select a road that would be repaired. The Executive Mayor also said that Ward 4 had an issue with poor road conditions, so we decided to resurface Botha Street in an attempt to solve the problem.”
Tlharipe said that the Mayor has a vision to resurface most of the roads in Randfontein within the next five years, but that vision is sometimes constrained by a lack of budget and resources, which makes it a time-consuming process.
“We aim to target the roads of Homelake and Mohlakeng after finishing Botha Street,” Tlharipe said. He went on to say that roads utilised by public transport will also receive attention during the next few years. In the mean time, residents are urged to avoid using Botha Street until the new surface is completed.
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