Mastiff Road in Midrand Industrial Park erodes after the JRA’s storm water drain discharges onto the road.
Shaun Wilson, park manager, said the storm water drain could have been redirected to the nearby water stream to avoid road erosion.
Huge potholes on Mastiff Road, allegedly caused by the water from storm water drainage, are plaguing Midrand Industrial Park’s main road.
The paper visited the park manager, Shaun Wilson, and Herman Jonker, from Bosun, on January 15, where upon arriving, a truck had just changed its punctured tyre. The big pothole on the road allegedly caused the tyre puncture.
Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) finds themselves at the epicentre of this debacle. Wilson said JRA built the storm water drain in September 2023 through a sub-contractor.
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However, the contractor did shoddy work as they did not redirect the storm water drain into the nearby stream.
Wilson said Mastiff Road carries about 3 500 cars per day and the potholes on that road are negatively affecting their business.
“JRA’s sub-contractor did not complete their work. The storm water runs all the way to the road, when they could have easily redirected the water into the stream. Now, we have to bear the brunt of their shoddy work. Mastiff Road is now in a bad state and badly damaged. Now that it is raining, the storm water combines with rain water, and it starts flooding and eroding the road. It makes it difficult for motorists, who can’t see the potholes because they are covered,” said Wilson.
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Gerda Vorster and Herman Jonker, both from Bosun Brick Midrand, said currently the storm water overflows into the road – damaging the tar road and causing huge potholes.
“The speed of the water flowing down the main road in the park is of such a force that only one side of the road can be used at a time. Yesterday [January 15] after the rain, no cars could return to the main entrance of the park, we all had to take a back road to get out of the park. The water runs through several properties, causing erosion and damage,” Vorster and Jonker said in an email.
They said this also causes a huge health hazard as the children are playing in the dirty water.
JRA’s HOD for Infrastructure Development Kwazelele Mcetywa said the storm water drain is adequate.
“The connection of the Lords View Dam into JRA storm water drainage is resulting in the runoff flooding and not discharging on the wetland/stream. This will be addressed in the upcoming phase which begins during this quarter. The storm water drain is adequate in size. It will have to be extended on the next upcoming project/phase, so that it is discharged directly to the stream. This is due to the connection of Lords View Dam, which was connected to the newly constructed storm water drainage system. This has increased the volume of water to be discharged,” said Mcetywa.
He said there is a need to extend to discharge directly onto the stream.
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