The walls of a storm water outlet located between the Craigtowne residential complex and Reea Epilepsy Care Centre in Craighall have been completely demolished, leaving Craigtowne resident Terence Meyer concerned about the potential flooding of his property.
The storm water outlet transports water from the suburbs into the Braamfontein Spruit located at Delta Park.
“I noticed that it had collapsed about three weeks ago… Huge volumes of road and surface storm water from everywhere from Rosebank to Craighall Park comes through this drain. The bank on the left-hand side has already eroded by two metres,” said Meyer.
“I am concerned about the damage this will cause to the wall of the Craigtowne complex as the water floods this area.”
Meyer believes that the gabions on the right-hand side of the wall would be a stronger alternative than the brick wall option which collapsed on the left.
“This storm water outlet needs reinforcing before more erosion affects the security of our complex,” said Meyer.
Ward 117 councillor Tim Truluck said, “There are plenty of these kinds of problems throughout the city due to ageing infrastructure, densification of dwellings which increases runoff and climate change, which increases the intensity of rainfall and subsequent runoff. Usually, there is no quick fix and it can take one to three years due to obtaining provincial environmental authorisation and national water licences, as well as finding the budget to fix it.”
Meyer contacted the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) to deal with the issue. According to him, during their visit to the site, they agreed that it was a serious issue.
Spokesperson for the JRA, Zoleka Jika explained that the wall which had fallen is not a maintenance issue but rather a project for the infrastructure development department at the JRA. No further comment was gathered from the JRA by the time of going to press.
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