R37 Road works delayed again

BURGERSFORT – Completion of the partial reconstruction of the Burgersfort/Lydenburg Road has been delayed for the third time and is now scheduled to finish more than a year after the originally planned completion date.

At first the project was scheduled for completion by July this year but “unforeseen” circumstances delayed it to April next year. Mr Hannes van der Merwe, Northern Region Project manager of Sanral apologised for this delay by saying, “it is due to various construction challenges that we have experienced, including the difficulty of working in the pass areas, mountainous terrain as well as the winter embargo period which stretched from May to September.” The same excuse was used for the third delay and completion will only commence in August next year according to him.

Steelburger/Lydenburg News asked Van der Merwe for a press release regarding the progress on the project nearly a month ago and after four emails and several phone calls was forced to contact the head of Sanral’s media department for answers. Mr Vusi Mona, head office general manager: communications assured this newspaper that, “not cooperating with the media is certainly not our way of doing things. I will investigate and revert.” A report was issued the same day.

According to the statement there has recently been an increase in the number of accidents due to speed restrictions not being adhered to, especially in the construction work zones. Sanral appeals to motorists to cooperate and adhere to the posted speed limits and not to overtake in the work-zone areas to ensure the safe construction of the works, the safety of the construction workers and that of all road users.

Meanwhile readers complained on the newspaper’s Facebook page and Tanya Joubert said, “It is getting ridiculous!! I haven’t been to Lydenburg in ages, just because of the roadworks. And the people think they can now drive like animals.”

On a more positive note, the contractor, Superway Construction (Pty) Ltd, has employed some 200 people to date from the local community and various training and skills transfer programmes have taken place as part of the construction.