I would like to congratulate Marcus Kneen on his letter to the editor headed “Pretoria Road in need of upgrade”, which was published in your issue of July 4. ”
The basic facts with regard to this arterial road, which runs from Bapsfontein and enters Benoni via Petit, Fairleads, Rynfield and Northmead, are given, and logical conclusions are drawn from these facts.
I would like to add the following additional facts:
We bought a plot in Fairleads in 1976 and have lived there ever since.
For all those 38 years Pretoria Road has been our main route to shopping centres, to schools, to church, to the Benoni CBD, to clubs and now also to our daughter’s home, in Lakefield.
In this time we have seen some improvements in the access to the rest of Benoni from our side, which included the upgrading of Snake Road, which gave better access to the Benoni CBD, via Pioneer Drive/Howard Avenue, and a doubling of the inward lane for a short distance in the region of its intersection with Miles Sharp Street.
This also gave better access to the N12 freeway, which was handy for people like ourselves on the one hand, but also more handy for large trucks, for the same reason.
A huge mielie land on the south side of Pretoria Road, opposite Fairleads, was converted into a new suburb – Crystal Park – and to the best of my knowledge this area is now fully developed, with houses on all the stands, a school, a shopping centre and a police station.
By this time there were several new shopping centres along the length of Pretoria Road, and the council made a suggestion that Pretoria Road properties be given business rights, as this would add a whole new “out of town” shopping area similar to that on North Rand Road.
We were not too keen on the idea, because, in spite of the fact that it could possibly improve the market value of our property, it would obviously make the traffic problem on Pretoria Road even worse than it already was.
All the plots immediately on Pretoria Road were, indeed, declared as “residential and/or business” and a large number of businesses which need a fair amount of space have already opened up there, and the road is busier.
We have already been told by the head of the roads department of the Benoni Service Centre that the reason why there is an upper limit of four tons on the weight of vehicles that are allowed to make use of the so-called “dust sealed” or lightly tarred roads in the plot areas is the fact that the main damage to tarred roads is caused by hydrostatic pressure that is exerted on the surface of the tar when the wide tyres of heavy vehicles run on tar that is wet, due to rain or any other cause.
Of course this can also happen to the proper provincial roads that have a proper base or foundation, and this is especially so as huge freight trucks with up to 22 wheels are allowed on these roads.
This is what has been happening to Pretoria Road for some time now, generally starting at the edges and wearing them away, but on occasions even causing potholes.
My personal opinion, based on the above-mentioned facts, is that the council has had its eye on Pretoria Road for some time now, seeing it not only as an arterial link to the town from the north, but also as an area for extension of the suburbs and the smallholdings, for Benoni’s ever-expanding population.
It has done a number of things from its side to upgrade the area as a whole, and it may well have applied to the provincial roads department for the upgrading of the road itself.
If it has, the provincial roads department may well have put this project on its “to-do list”, but below a number of other projects that currently have higher priority for whatever reason.
In the meantime, the heart of Benoni will probably have to live with an artery that needs a transplant.
