The emergency water pipe replacement in Constantia Kloof is expected to be completed at the end of June, one month ahead of schedule. This is according to the Community Liaison Officer, Louis Pretorius. “Within two weeks we will have all the excavation done, and the two weeks thereafter will be for rehabilitation to replace driveways and lawn where necessary. We were meant to finish by 31 July and we will most probably finish by the end of June,” he revealed.
Louis said the project was meant to begin on 23 March but they struggled to find a site camp. “City Parks does not easily grant permission for a construction company to put up a site camp. It is a requirement of the project that we have a site camp,” he said. Labour was sourced among the local residents in April. “We really only started digging the first Monday in May, and we are a month ahead of schedule even though we started a month late. We really pushed and these guys worked hard.”
Construction to replace and upgrade the water pipes was expected to take four months. The scope of the work included replacing 100mm diameter steel pipes with 110mm uPVC pipes; 75mm steel pipes with 110mm uPVC pipes; and 110mm steel pipes with 110mm uPVC pipes by means of the conventional (open-trench) method, as well as the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) construction method on major road crossings.
Ward 89 councillor, Amelia Bester organised a special lunch event on 4 June to extend gratitude to the workers and staff who have worked on the project. She said the team made up a lot of time, even though they started late. “They are doing double the amount of work they are supposed to be doing per day, The area is clean and the site is well-managed. It just shows that when you do appoint a community liaison officer from the community itself, it makes a difference.”
