High Road a risk – residents

Orchards residents and motorists said they are living in fear because of a manhole in the middle of the road.

The manhole was dug and left unattended by Joburg Water personnel about five months ago.

Costa Papadimos, a resident said the site is an absolute mess and nothing has been done since. Papadimos said, “An accident is waiting to happen on this corner. Can you kindly investigate as to when this mess will be resolved?”

Another resident, Loraine Faris said the municipality had dug the hole in the road to do repair work a couple of weeks ago. The hole is still untouched and is extremely dangerous to motorists using the corner of High Road. “We have a dangerous situation on the corner of High Road and African Street, Orchards.”

Ward 73 Councillor, Marcelle Ravid said she was informed that one of the reasons for the delay was that a contractor was put on site and messed up and so they [the city]had to start again. Ravid said, “Please could the city make sure that contractors are competent before they start. It would also help if there was more supervision. This problem should not have taken five months to repair.”

Joburg Water spokesperson Millicent Kabwe said they were aware of the excavation and there was a capital investment project that was planned for this section and that was to replace a 300m valve. She said, “There has been a delay on the installation because of the delayed delivery of materials. Steel companies do not always have valves of such size in stock therefore there are long waiting times for materials. The waiting was much longer that we anticipated because there was a strike in the industry where we sourced the materials. This delayed the project a bit and hence there is an excavation that you would not normally see where we work. “

Kabwe added, “We do take into account the safety of the residents in all our projects. We have the materials delivered now and the contractor is installing the valve and further works of backfilling chamber constructions and cleaning the site should be complete in the new week. We try our best to respond to issues brought to our attention within reasonable times and we give residents many options to contact us.

Details: www.johannesburgwater.co.za, sms line, 082 653 2143 or 011 375 5555 or customerserviceemails@jwater.co.za

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