Residents of Peacevale are demanding urgent action after repeated complaints about heavy-duty vehicles using the one-way bridge in Hajee Jamaal Street. Motorists and residents said that trucks coming from the Vryheid entrance to Dundee were diverted through the residential area for five days, causing traffic congestion and forcing motorists to reverse to make way for double-link vehicles.

Traffic had been redirected off the Vryheid road onto a bypass route via Browning, Chocklal and Hajee Jamal streets. The diversion appears to be related to ongoing roadworks that included the painting of lines on the Vryheid road. Residents said they were perplexed that it took workers five days to paint lines on a ‘small section of road that was in any case in a poor condition’.

Residents added that the situation caused severe damage to already deteriorating roads, with heavy double-link coal trucks using the narrow streets.”The tar is cracking and lifting up.. Once the rain starts, there won’t be any tar left,” a resident warned. Locals argue that while diverting smaller vehicles was understandable, allowing large trucks through the area is both unsafe and in violation of road regulations.
“A road sign in Browning Street clearly states a maximum weight limit of five tons. Many of the trucks far exceed this limit.
“The trucks are so long they’re mounting pavements when turning into Hajee Jamal Street. What damage are they doing to the old iron one-way bridge? No one knows.”

Peacevale residents are also angered by what they say are ‘careless truck drivers who do not heed road rules’, with one woman reporting that a truck almost drove into her near Dundee Secondary School, forcing her car off the road and into a ditch.

With the Browing Street area used by hundreds of schoolchildren attending Dundee Secondary, safety is also a major worry for many.
The condition of the pedestrian crossing on the bridge, where the fencing is rusted and broken, is also a cause for concern to residents.
Adding to this, locals say the crossing is dangerous, especially when large vehicles pass at the same time as pedestrians.

The truck saga has also affected those living in the lower Gray, Douglas and Union Street areas. Since work has started on the controversial Argyle Street project, coal trucks are using the residential roads, which those living there say has impacted on their lives.
“The trucks run any time of the day at full speed. We can’t sleep and our road is fast becoming a pothole paradise,” said one man who identified himself only as Jan.

Asked to comment, Cllr Naresh Gopie said he was in contact with traffic officials to seek a solution that would be oriented towards the economy, as well as safe and beneficial to the affected residents.

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