Although many across Johannesburg are used to potholes and water leaks, the conversation takes a darker turn where these two roadside anomalies lead to head-on collisions.
Unfortunately, the chaos along Pretoria Avenue in Sandton has already led to one outside Metropolis on Park.
“About a month ago, we had quite a serious head-on collision in the road – two cars coming down, one swerved at the last moment, and they had a head-on collision,” said the property’s manager Colin Germs on June 4.
He said that the water leak has been a fixture outside the property since November last year when the matter first became reported.
“Joburg Water did come – they opened up a couple of excavations to try and find where the problem was, and they have since disappeared,” added Germs.
“The problem has gotten worse with time. We don’t seem to get any joy from anyone out there, not even any explanation as to why nothing is happening. It just stays like that.”
Although no longer working in the civil construction and engineering domain, Germs shared his analysis of why Sandton (and Johannesburg) experiences roving water challenges – such as costly leaks of this nature.
“I do understand the issue that Joburg is probably facing – the network is extremely old.
“My concern is the waste, and I don’t have the solutions. Something has to be done; we can’t continue in this vein. We can’t leave it until there’s severe damage that can’t (or take forever to) be repaired. We need to start acting.”
Germs detailed how asbestos cement pipes and fibre-reinforcement pipes were used in waterlines back in the day, and how they start to fail when they soften from extreme water pressures.
“We used to install what we called cut-off valves (shut-off valves) around an area where you could isolate specific zones for repair without switching off the whole suburb.
“It seems to me that either they don’t know where those valves are anymore, or we’ve reached the stage where the valves don’t work.
“What happens now is that when you have a problem in an area, they can’t just go and isolate the specific section.”
As a result, repair works tend to yield more counterproductive outcomes – like incompletion.
“As much as we complain about the water if you had to go shut down a road for a couple of months to do the necessary water pipe repairs, never mind the cost involved, imagine the backlash from the community when they can’t travel on their roads anymore?” Germs reflected.
“It’s a massive problem that the city faces. There are solutions, but they’re expensive solutions. We’ve reached the stage where, unfortunately, we’ve allowed this stuff to deteriorate so far that the problem is becoming too big.”
In terms of temporary solutions, Germs recommended at least barricading or demarcating the excavations along Pretoria Avenue properly towards warning motorists of hazards along the route.
Joburg Water (JW) was contacted on June 4, towards arriving at the city’s official response. On June 7, JW spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala confirmed the leak. Shabalala reported that the JW team’s leak detector had taken time before locating the exact whereabouts of the leak.
“Unfortunately, we are not able to measure the volume [or costs] of water that is lost during the pipe burst because to measure it you must know the exact time the pipe burst happened, the diameter of the hole on the pipe, and the pressure at which the water is pushing on,” Shabalala said, highlighting some of the issues they’ve encountered at the site.
“The leak was finally located this week. However, upon the start of excavations, the team’s tractor-loader-backhoe (TLB) machine couldn’t reach the bottom of the pipe, and needs an excavator machine.
“Upon completion of repairs, Johannesburg Water will escalate the matter to the JRA for a tar reinstatement.”
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