A business owner on Oxford Road has compiled a pictorial report for the authorities on the unsatisfactory state of pavements in the Forest Town area.
According to Nick Human, managing director at Llp Design, pedestrians risk injury when walking in the area as they are forced to walk in the road due to unrepaired pavements. “I have spent a few years sending emails to our councillor and also to the Johannesburg Roads Agency to try and have repairs to the pavements along Oxford Road completed.
“Trying to log calls of this nature through the hotline number has been pointless and you cannot submit images.”
Human added that what residents need is a commitment and a detailed strategy by the City outlining what would be done and providing timelines to what he called ‘a destruction that has been allowed to continue for many years’.
“In my opinion, there is currently an almost complete lack of management control by the City or the roads agency of what gets done to or under their pavements and how repairs are effected. Bylaws also need to be strictly enforced,” he concluded.
Approached for comment, Ward 87 councillor Bridget Steer said construction giant WBHO was working on the M1 Rehabilitation project and the repairing of the pavements was in their scope of work. “WBHO will be fixing, replacing and reinstating the surrounding paving.
“All pavement sections of Oxford Road will be repaved by WBHO with paving blocks. They will be building a stone pitched wall to properly hold the embankment. Pavements will be rebuilt with locking paving stones.”
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She went on to say that it was the task of the roads agency to check that pavements had been reinstated by contractors when work was completed. “They are supposed to inspect all work done before closing off the wayleave with the contractors.”
In an email, WBHO’s site manager, David Smith confirmed that the replacement of kerbs would commence in February next year. “The repair of the walkway has been added to WBHO’s scope of works. Work is to begin in April,” said Smith.
“When construction began, WBHO connected to an existing storm water system, but it was blocked and the drain will be unblocked by a specialist contractor next week. The material behind the brick wall will be stabilised with stone pitching and this will begin in February.”
His email further explained that all problems that have been raised, will be resolved in the new year.
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In a statement, Johannesburg Roads Agency’s Bertha Peters-Scheepers said the pavements in the area would undergo a quality check and where defects were found, would be corrected. “The JRA is implementing planned, reactive and proactive approaches to maintenance which will ensure that maintenance issues such as these are identified and attended to timeously,” explained Peters-Scheepers.
“We encourage residents to report all road related matters to the JRA for attention.”
