Salt Rock councillor questions road repair quality

A newly repaired road in Salt Rock had to be repaired again over the weekend after a week of heavy rains saw parts of the road collapse.

Salt Rock ward councillor Privi Makhan is questioning the quality of the original road repairs to Colwyn Drive and Hugh Dent Drive claiming that ‘shoddy workmanship’ saw road conditions deteriorate less than 3 months after repairs were completed.

Makhan complained that KDM had repaired the road out of its own pocket as opposed to that of the contractor. She questioned why substandard work had been paid for by the municipality.

KDM spokesperson, Sipho Mkhize however dismissed Makhan’s complaint, explaining that the additional damages were caused by erosion due to heavy rainfall and a burst water pipe and were not part of the scope of the contractor, so the municipality undertook to repair the damage.

According to councillor Makhan, the municipality had paid contractors some R52 000.

Work included top layer surfacing, compaction and installation of gabion baskets.

Three months later Hugh Dent began to collapse again and Colwyn Drive is showing signs of deterioration.

Repairs to Hugh Dent were swiftly redone on Sunday.

Speaking on damage at Colwyn Drive, Mkhize said teams undertook cable works at the area, with the ground at the time being unstable owing to rainfall causing erosion.

“We have been to the area and remedies will be undertaken which includes relaying of kerbing and patching of the collapsed area.”

Meanwhile, at Hugh Dent, Mkhize noted that the collapse happened owing to a burst water pipe which caused the bankside to wash away.

“The bank was reinstated and gabions retaining the wall were reinstated. The recent failure was caused by the catchpit inlet not being big enough to accommodate the amount of stormwater during ‘flash floods’ and we have rectified the problem,” he said.

“Cllr Makhan was party to all decisions made including hiring of local labour. So it’s strange that she was now sees an entity she worked with as shoddy.”

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