Roads agency announces April deadline to fix roads
JOBURG - To much fanfare regional director for Region A of the City of Johannesburg, Abigail Ndlovu, invited the press to visit the municipal office to discuss a burning issue – roads.
Region A was unafraid to agree that recent cloudbursts caused havoc on kilometres of tar across the region.
Johannesburg Roads Agency’s operations manager for marketing and communications Bertha Peters-Scheepers clarified how the agency would ensure that a backlog of problems would be addressed.
She stated that the end of April would see all roads patched up to the same state they were in before the unseasonal weather struck Johannesburg; the agency can then start to address the backlog of maintenance before the rain.
“People ask what are we doing. Teams are out seven days a week addressing issues. During the rain we temporarily patched potholes. These patches are meant to last a few days, and are the only solution in wet weather,” Scheepers said.
Patches were focused on main routes during the rain.
“We were starting our road resurfacing programmes before the rain,” she added.
Now that skies are clearing, four bridges in Region A, including those on Riverbend Road and Third Road, have been earmarked to be fixed first.
Scheepers also ensured that a budget was in place so that road maintenance needs were met.
“A visual assessment has been done, and problematic roads are getting our attention.”
But, the roads agency seems to have a split personality when it comes to logging complaints. A main issue is that they often get blamed for lacklustre work on provincial roads. Witkoppen Road and William Nicol Drive are two Fourways examples of roads that are not under the agency’s jurisdiction.
They also gave the clear message that residents needed to be responsible for their roads too. They are encouraged them to interact with the agency to ensure problem areas were not overlooked.
The agency is hosting a press conference on 19 March at their city office to provide answers to all issues, as well as to discuss their budget.
Fourways Review metro reporter Simone Samuels will be tweeting from the conference. Follow @MsSimoneSamuels or @Fourways_Review for live updates.
