Letter of the Week: Roads need attention

Now that our esteemed and Hon. Mayor Ricardo is back from his policy conference, may we ask that he finds the time and someone willing to repair the two major traffic hazards in our town?

I refer to the storm water damage in Leonora Drive and in Ocean Drive.

It would appear that some effort was put in to commence sorting out these two problems but work seems to now have been abandoned.

Vehicles now have to swerve out into oncoming traffic to avoid falling into either of these drains and I do not think it requires anything more than a little effort to fill in and re-tar the damage.

With all the extra holiday traffic using these roads we are sitting on an accident waiting to happen.

GC FLETT, Ballito

KwaDukuza municipality responds:

Leonora Drive – The damage was as a result of an Umgeni Water pipe bursting.

The issue dates back to February 2017.

KDM was ready to repair the road through section 36 as it was deemed urgent but Umgeni Water had to fix the pipe first and in the process they decided to construct a chamber. They have recently completed construction.

The agreement was that KDM is going to reinstate the road and invoice Umngeni Water. KDM has planned to do the reinstatement through Cluster contractors before the end of July 2017 and invoice Umgeni Water as per the agreement between the two parties.

Ocean Drive – During the heavy rains experienced in February 2017, there was a wash away at Ocean Drive.

The wash away was addressed by section 36.

A sinkhole developed after that and interim measures were put in place due to the end of the financial year.

As the financial year begins on the 1st July each year, funds are now available and the Civil Engineering Department will issue an order and work should be done and complete by the first week of August 2017.

We are currently utilising internal staff to ensure that the road is safe as a temporary remedial measure.

SIFISO ZULU, KDM corporate communications director