Plans in the pipeline for Blanceville bridge

As eMalahleni is feeling heavy rains again in the past week, residents are in a buzz about the bridge that collapsed with the previous flood in March.

A new committee for Ward 20 was announced on November 7 and residents had the chance to say how and what the problems in Blanceville are.

The main issues of concern raised by the community were among others, illegal land use in the area, streetlights, state of roads and general service delivery issues that the municipality is slow to respond to and of course the bridge in Second Avenue.

The residents were informed about the plans the municipality had in the pipeline for the rebuilding of the bridge that collapsed on March 18 with the heavy floods.

The bridge in Second Avenue, Blanceville is still not fixed from the floods that came over eMalahleni in March 2016.

The municipality manager Mr. Theo van Vuuren said that,

“after investigating alternatives, the technical directorate has finalised plans to address the link road network gap left by the washing away of the bridge earlier this year. It was trying to secure funding to upgrade the bridge to a higher standard but overall municipal funding priorities could not allow such an approach. However, plans to reconstruct the bridge at the same standard has been finalised. A turnkey approach is being followed and if all goes well the bridge will be opened before the end of December.”

The residents at the ward meeting was glad to hear the good news for once but is concerned about the project’s time phase.

Further van Vuuren said,

“we have also decided to install speed calming devices to ensure speed is reduced when crossing the bridge to ensure more safety especially in the event of extreme flooding in future.”

But the residents is still curious about the other damages that was caused by the flood and if that will also be addressed by the municipality. That is why the committee will meet on a monthly basis to coordinate all service delivery issues. By the time of print van Vuuren did not yet responded on that query.

“I want to thank the community for their patience over the past months and director Mr Mashile for his innovative thinking on finding an affordable solution,” van Vuuren concluded.

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