The main contractor of the R37 Burgersfort/Lydenburg roadworks will not be returning next year.

BURGERSFORT – Motorists dreaming of a better R37 between Lydenburg and Burgersfort will have to dream a little longer after SANRAL ended the tenure of the current contractors.

This comes after the current contractor’s regular postponements of work and poor quality workmanship on the work it has been able
to complete.

SANRAL confirmed the termination of the R37 partial construction, Superway Construction PTY Ltd contract, in a statement issued last
night.

“SANRAL has terminated their contract. This is due to the constant delays, slow progress and questionable quality of work and postponement of the completion date on the 36 km stretch of the R37 where partial reconstruction, widening of lanes and shoulders of the road and surfacing had to be done,” read the statement.

According to SANRAL, the last proposed completion date put forward by the contractor was December 2014. However, the contractor
struggled to make any substantial progress and fell behind on his own schedule. “Given this and numerous justified complaints from the public, SANRAL decided to terminate the contractor’s contract prior to the work being completed,” said Hannes van der Merwe, the Project Manager for SANRAL’s Northern Region.

The other reasons that led to the contractor being put off the project include the fact that the completed road works were left without any
permanent asphalt surfacing, which resulted in the deterioration of constructed layer works.

“The ‘old’ road also started to break-up due to increased road traffic, rain penetrating the surface layer and mainly due to the fact that the
road is at the end of its serviceable life span. “This saw the number of potholes on this stretch of the R37 increasing significantly over the last two
months which were not maintained correctly and timely,” said Van der Merwe.

He added that interim measures have been made to open the road to the public, make the road as safe as possible and to repair any potholes which may form on the road. Temporary closures may be introduced from time to time to undertake necessary and urgent repairs to the road,” he said.
“SANRAL anticipates to have a ‘new’ contractor appointed following a new tender process and to be on site by the end of April 2014.

“The new contract completion date is likely to be some 20 months later, by end November/mid December 2015,” said van der Merwe.

SANRAL apologised for any inconvenience caused during the ‘extended’ construction period and the inevitable time delays but believe that
the road once is completed it will be safer and ensure a better, smoother and uninterrupted journey to the road user