Helen Strong said motorists and residents in the area needed to campaign in an effort to force the Johannesburg Roads Agency to get moving when it comes to maintaining the roads and having them kept in better shape.
“Since it looks as if the fuel levy is not being allocated to roads, it means that ratepayers are just not getting the service they are paying for,” she said.
“While travelling along Oxford Road at the 8th Avenue intersection, the traffic has to drive over two deep ditches across the road on either side of the robots.”
Strong said she believed the roads had been dug up by a contractor and not fixed.
“The heavy downpours over the past couple of days compounded the situation. Both sides of the road collapsed even further,” she explained.
Strong said she had also been travelling on Westcliff Drive at the intersection of Wicklow Avenue when she encountered two dangerously deep potholes in the middle of the intersection.
“These are almost impossible to avoid, more especially if there is on-coming traffic,” she added.
“This type of hazard on the road is unacceptable. The probability of accidents is increased, and cars with low profile tyres are at extreme risk of damage.”
According to the roads agency’s spokesperson Bertha Peters-Scheepers, they were aware of the potholes along Oxford Road.
“The [agency] would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused to residents,” she said.
On 5 February, Peters-Scheepers assured The Gazette that the roads agency would dispatched a team to attend to the potholes on Oxford Road on the day; this was indeed attended to and the potholes have been fixed.
“The Westcliff and Wicklow potholes have been recorded and will also be attended to as a matter of urgency,” she added.
