Ward 117 and Ward 90 Councillors concerned about problematic roads
A wayleaf is a form that must be completed before any planned digging work by any external entity or party can be undertaken in the road reserve (the road or the pavement).
City-wide reinstatements should be complete by the end of November, but ward councillors Tim Truluck and Martin Williams raise concerns over roads that have not been reinstated after pipe replacements.
Speaking to the Gazette on October 25, Ward 117 councillor Truluck explained that the Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) no longer reinstated holes dug up by Joburg Water.
“Joburg Water has to apply for a wayleaf which is permission to dig and work in the road reserve (which is the sidewalk and road) but Joburg Water has been refused due to the quality control issues with the holes they have reinstated. Another problem is lack of funds, Joburg Water didn’t have enough money for reinstatements as well as not enough teams being available to complete the reinstatements.”
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Truluck added that the reinstatement process included filling the dug-up holes with sand which was not always the case with most of the holes hence a bigger hole emerged after a few months.
Joburg Water’s acting manager Puleng Mopeli said the entity was aware of reinstatement backlogs. “The backlog in reinstatements city-wide should be addressed [by the] end of November. It should however be noted that in the process of repairing water and sewer infrastructure, excavations are carried out, but Jorbug Water will strive to do the required backfilling within five days and reinstatements soon afterwards if required.”
Mopeli concluded that the resource constraint was on the side of JRA, hence the water entity hired their own contractors to assist with the reinstatements.
JRA’s Operations marketing manager and communications, Bertha Peters-Scheepers explained that before any planned digging work by any external entity or party can be undertaken in the road reserve a wayleave form must be completed.
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“In the case of Joburg Water, the entity would apply for wayleaves either before planned or after emergency trench work has been undertaken on the road reserve, and Jhb Water’s teams would undertake their own reinstatement work. However, due to the high number of emergency work needing to be carried out by Jhb Water they have now appointed service providers to reinstate the road trenches on their behalf. The service providers still apply for JRA wayleaves, and JRA regional depots are then able to monitor reinstatements as per the JRA wayleave process.”
Peters-Scheepers added that Joburg Water has always been responsible to reinstating the roads where they have worked. The only aspect that has changed is that instead of doing their own reinstatements, they recently appointed service providers to reinstate the road trenches on their behalf.
Ward 90 councillor Williams said the state road along Richmond in Craighall Park was alarming.
“Richmond Avenue is quite a steep hill and there’s usually gushing water during the rainy season. Ideally, water should pour into the storm water drain but the pavement is all dug up, there’s sand, rubble and huge stones covering the stormwater path. There’s an increasing cost of the negligence in not reinstating roads and pavements in good time.”
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