Demolition in progress, or not?
The Umdloti lifeguard tower demolition has come to complete standstill.
About four weeks ago, Atomic Demolishers put up demarcation fences and orange cones and so it was finally time to say goodbye to the dilapidated Umdloti lifeguard tower.
Or at least, that was the plan.
According to councillor Geoff Pullan, the windows, toilets and basins were removed about three weeks ago, but then everything stopped and nothing has happened since.
“Water is leaking out of the bathrooms and flowing down the stairs on either side of the building, which is criminal to see during a time of water shortage,” said Pullan.
The fencing on the beach had fallen over, leaving glass, toilet roll holders and roller doors on the sand in the demolition zone, making it a dangerous place where beach goers might get injured.
When the Courier brought the state of the site to the attention of Atomic Demolishers, the project manager Muhammed Khan said the area will be secured immediately and that they have not been at the site, because they had been forced to stop working.
“Everything that can be done from a demolition point of view has been done, but we have not been able to continue, because the power supply has not yet been disconnected,” said Khan.
Although Khan said the water supply had been disconnected, it must have been reconnected because water is flowing from the building.
“Council has to disconnect the electricity, because it is a municipal building, so we are waiting for them to do so.”
In the meantime, the site has been cleaned up and the fences have been erected again, but still no work has been done. A site inspection was done last week to find out why the water has been reconnected and to inspect the electricity issue.
“It was concluded that both the water and the electricity will be isolated this week, so we should be able to continue the demolition next week,” said Khan.
He added that the demolition should take about two weeks to be completed.
Once the old tower is removed, Umdloti beach will have a chance to once again be the beautiful pilot blue flag beach that it used to be.
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