Trucks a persistent problem

IT WAS IN 2011 that the municipality spent hundreds of thousands of rands on the rehabilitation of the intersection of Church and President streets. The following year it spent as much again on the rehabilitation of the intersection of Utrecht and President streets.

Both these intersections had had their surfaces and sub-strata wrecked by the heavy trucks turning from one street into another. And following the rehabilitation, signs were erected outside of town to give advance warning to these trucks that there was a weight limit in force ahead. The warning is repeated in Church Street itself, just before the West Street intersection, West Street being the last viable road from which to exit Church Street.

These signs have made no difference.

Daily, large articulated trucks rumble up and down Church Street. Some perhaps have a genuine reason to do so, having loads for businesses in the CBD, but clearly others are in the CBD in defiance of the signs.

And it would appear that the local traffic authority is unwilling or unable to prevent this happening. Were fines issued to these drivers, it is almost certain that they would alert each other, and almost certain that the truck owners, receiving multiple R1,000 fines on consecutive days, would instruct their drivers to stay out of Vryheid.

The solution appears to be what it has been for years now – Vryheid needs a truck stop outside of town, somewhere where the truckers can safely park, buy refreshments, buy fuel, draw money, make repairs

There is a truck stop in the pipeline at the intersection of the Vryheid/Dundee road and the bypass, but questions are already being asked about the size of the facility because it is believed that as many as 30 large articulated trucks come into Vryheid in the evenings, to park in Vryheid’s streets so that their drivers can sleep in relative safety. East and Church streets seem to be the favoured “dormitory streets”.

It is relative safety because these trucks are being targeted by thieves who siphon off the diesel fuel and steal the spare tyres while the drivers are asleep inside the cabs.

These trucks are to be the subject of a survey, jointly organised by the municipality and the SAPS, to ascertain how many trucks actually come into Vryheid for the night, and to ascertain what alternative measures the truck owners’ will support.

At the same time, and for the next 30 days, Cllr Harry Heyns advises that the trucks in Church Street will me monitored by the municipal traffic department. Cllr Heyns said on Tuesday that it wasn’t a solution to the problem “but at least we’ve got a starting point”.