Vehicle repairs to damages by R40 sinkhole will be paid out, undertakes Department of Roads
The Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport stated that motorists whose vehicles were damaged by a sinkhole on the R40 near Drum Rock, may submit their claims to the department.
Several motorists whose vehicles were damaged as a result of driving through a poorly marked sinkhole on the R40 last week can rest easy about who will be footing the bill for the repairs.
This is according to the Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport, which has urged all the affected motorists to submit their claims to the department.
A sinkhole had suddenly appeared last Tuesday evening, April 25, in the middle lane of the R40 near Drum Rock, going up the hill from Mbombela towards White River.
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When Lowvelder arrived at the scene on Tuesday night, several cars had stopped on the roadside due to burst tyres and damaged rims caused by driving through the sinkhole. Lowvelder spoke to several affected motorists while on the scene, including Raymond Sibuyi, who said it was 20:10 when his vehicle hit the hole. “It caused damage to my tyre and the rim. There were no warning signs around the sinkhole,” he said.
Another motorist, Karabo Mpolokeng, said it was about 20:30 when his vehicle hit the sinkhole. He said he did not see the hole until he was about to drive through it. “I could not swerve out of the way in time, and I hit it badly. When I stopped, there were about 15 other vehicles stopped at the side of the road with damage to their cars after hitting it. I drive this stretch of road almost every night, and the sinkhole had come out of nowhere,” he said.
Lowvelder witnessed some of these motorists taking traffic cones found on the roadside and placing them around the sinkhole to mark it for other drivers, while members of Nelspruit Concerned Citizens stood on the road in front of the hole with flashlights, directing oncoming traffic to slow down and move into the innermost lane.
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The department later dispatched a team to close the lane and install temporary warning signs leading up to and around the sinkhole.
The cause of this hole is still unknown. The department’s spokesperson, Bongani Dhlamini, said resealing work was being done by Pule Construction on the left lane on the R40, and that the sinkhole had suddenly appeared in the middle lane after the contractor had left the site for the day.
He said that while the contractor is responsible for the stretch of road, as the site had been handed over to Pule Construction, the claims should be submitted to the department for assessment and damages. He said claimants should go to the department’s offices at 14 Bester Street in Mbombela. They will be given a form to fill out to be submitted to the department.
“The contractor is responsible for the whole stretch of the road, and not only a particular lane,” he said.
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Pule Construction’s Pule Shakwane said, however, that it was only working on the left lane and had not touched the middle lane where the sinkhole had formed.
Shakwane had not responded to further queries about the responsibility it had regarding the stretch of road at the time of publishing.
Meanwhile, Dhlamini said the department has appointed a consultant company to investigate the cause of the sinkhole. “We are currently awaiting for a preliminary report of the investigation. Upon receiving the report, the department will then implement the recommendations contained in the report as a long-term solution.
“We also appeal to road users not to remove any temporary signs on that road, as it has been discovered that during the night, there are people who are deliberately removing the signs, which might cause serious danger to other road users,” said Dhlamini.
