To the relief of community members, the closure of 9th Street to traffic across Louis Botha Avenue is due to be reversed. The closure, which blocked access between Orange Grove and Norwood, had residents concerned about Orange Grove’s exclusion from the transformation that Rea Vaya seeks to bring to the suburbs.
According to one reader, William Dewar who commutes along Louis Botha Avenue and connecting roads, the closure of 9th Street forced traffic to cross Louis Botha Avenue via only two remaining intersections, which were a full kilometre apart.
“If the mandate of our municipality is to create ‘corridors of freedom’, they have dismally failed, for what has been created is quite the opposite – an oppressive corridor of traffic congestion,” said Dewar.
A resolution may be in sight, however. In response to objections, JDA representatives agreed, at an onsite meeting with Orange Grove Residents Association and Ward 72 and 73 councillors Steven Kruger and Marcelle Ravid respectively, to present a revised road closure plan. 9th Street will be reopened to traffic crossing Louis Botha Avenue, although a right turn onto Louis Botha Avenue will remain impossible. According to Ravid, the JDA has further undertaken to redesign critical intersections at Goodman Terrace and Osborn Road.
Nevertheless, the effect of road closure plans – which leave the majority of intersections with no right turn onto Louis Botha Avenue, and remove an estimated half of crossing points – remains a concern. As numerous closures coincide geographically with the absence of a bus station along the 2km stretch of Rea Vaya that runs alongside Orange Grove [please link to https://northeasterntribune.co.za/143625/hiccups-for-rea-vaya/], the suburb appears to be in danger of isolation from its neighbours.
Manuel Cabeleira, who has owned the iconic Radium Beerhall at the corner of 9th Street and Louis Botha Avenue for 30 years, believes the inconvenience of road closures will cause Orange Grove residents to take their business over the hill to Bruma, rather than across Louis Botha Avenue, resulting in a loss of passing trade to Norwood, the Radium, and other local businesses.
“We need a world-class public transport system, but not at the expense of local business,” he said.
For Kruger, meanwhile, the present renegotiation of road closure plans was indicative of a wider flaw in the Rea Vaya system.
“This whole issue brings into question the lack of knowledge of the suburbs by the people who have done the Traffic Impact Studies in the area,” said Kruger.
