With the vital N2 corridor in Durban damaged to the extent that the road has become impassable in certain sections following the recent KwaZulu-Natal floods, an existing contract relating to settlement repair of the route has been fast-tracked by the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral).

Zutari was awarded the contract following a competitive tender early last year.

The engineering design and advisory services company is now playing a major role in devising the most cost-effective and resilient solution to repair a section of the route in terms its contract.

“We have effectively pulled together resources and expertise to address the problem as a matter of urgency,” says Zutari technical director Tashna Margo. This includes advising on measures to ensure human life is protected and quickly restoring the damaging impact of the floods on key infrastructure.”

In addition, dams expertise leader, Dr Frank Denys, and senior water resources engineer Martin Kleynhans have been called upon to assist in assessing the flood damage as part of Zutari’s urban storm water and flooding brief.

“Basically, we are conducting a condition assessment to ascertain the extent of the damage, assess what repairs can be done and what not, and provide options as to the way forward,” says Denys.

“There is a broader narrative around this, with climate change necessitating improved designs to establish more resilient infrastructure,” says Dr Gabi Wojtowitz, a geotechnical engineer and associate design director at Zutari.

“It also speaks to risk classes and identifying areas where development should not take place. Perhaps risk classification for developments similar to dolomitic ground conditions where specific measures are imposed for high-risk areas should be implemented,” she suggests.

Dr Wojtowitz concurs that the catastrophic flooding has increased the focus on climate change as an area of serious concern. She notes that such extreme weather events are likely to become more extreme and common in future. This speaks to the need for resilient infrastructure and risk mitigation, as well as bringing human-centred and environmentally aware design to bear.

“If we highlight potential issues that are not responded to and these then become the cause of a disaster scenario, it is a much harder to rectify after the fact. Not that this was not an extreme event; it certainly was.”

Zultari technical director and sustainability expertise leader, Dr James Cullis, said there were definite multiple underlying contributing factors that probably made the situation worse than it should have been, an example of what is likely to occur more regularly in future.