WATCH: ‘No inexpensive solution’ to Tom Jones flooding

Ward 28 councillor Mary Goby said according to the metro’s roads department, there is no inexpensive solution to the problem of flooding that occurs regularly on the section of Amina Cachalia Street (formerly Tom Jones Street) at the intersection of Mowbray Avenue.

The road again flooded on February 5 following heavy rain the night before and into the early hours of the morning, causing traffic havoc into the the Benoni CBD.

Goby said the ground inside the Lakeview Hospital also flooded but no damage was done to the hospital.

As soon as the water subsided MMC for waste management and environment resources André du Plessis was requested to ask the department to clean up the hyacinth in the road, as this could not be removed without supervision by department employees.

The environmental team was also scheduled to start spraying the hyacinth in the Civic Dam on February 7, weather permitting.

The roads department sent Mayor Tania Campbell and Goby this response:

“The Blesbokspruit Spruit is the major water course which runs through Benoni. It flows through a series of dams (Homestead Dam, Middle Lake, Civic Lake adjacent to Lakeside Mall) and finally though Kleinfontein Lake, from where it flows eastwards towards Springs.

“There are three north-south roads in the Benoni CBD crossing the N12 freeway, of which one is Tom Jones Street, which is located between the Civic and Middle lakes. These roads were built many years ago and also cross the 1:100 year flood plane.

“Tom Jones Street is known to flood periodically (around three to five times a year) and it takes between a few hours and 24 hours to become trafficable, depending on the extent of the flooding.

“There are no inexpensive solutions to this flooding on Tom Jones Street other than reconstruction of a portion of the road – an option which has never been explored, due to cost, unacceptable vertical geometrical alignment and access constraints and the possibility that it could increase even more severe flooding during these less frequent flooding events.

“The only possible realistic solution would be to increase the spillway of the Kleinfontein Lake, which is causing the ‘bottle-neck’ downstream.

“Increasing the spillway will eliminate the bottle neck, allowing inflow to flow out at the same rate, which will prevent damming upstream, to an extent. A preliminary design was done in April 2010, she added, and this concluded that it is feasible and could possibly reduce the number of flooding occurrences of these roads (including Tom Jones Street).

“The estimated cost in 2010 was about R30-million. The estimated escalated cost in 2022 is R55-m. There is no provision for this major project on the multi-year budget,” the report from the roads department concluded.

Goby concluded that the amount of rain recorded over the last few weeks/months is more than average for Benoni.