Municipal worker makes Promosa road a personal mission

A municipal worker has made it his personal mission to restore the Promosa road after having a near-death experience due to potholes on the road earlier last month.

After hitting a major pothole and almost being involved in a major accident, Antonello Vertyn asked the Department of Infrastructure for materials to repair the road to which the department was more than willing to provide him with tools to repair the road.

On Monday, 21 February, the workers were again on site patching the newly developed potholes. Vertyn who uses the road on a daily basis for work says apart from his own benefit, both him and his colleagues are determined to serve the community and ensure they are safe and although they could not fill all the potholes, they targeted the major ones. 

For years, many frustrated motorists have complained about the state of the Promosa road. Former municipal spokesperson William Maphosa previously confirmed that the municipality had addressed critically-damaged sections from 35 Pietersen Street to 47 Bloemtjie Street – a total of 3.6 km.

According to Jeanette Tshite, acting municipal spokesperson, the newly developing potholes  on the road are being caused by heavy rainfall and not the quality of the repairs done.

“The completed scope of work entailed repairing 1,390 m2 of potholes (includes 100 mm G1 layer replacing existing base material),” she confirmed. She added that to ensure that quality work was carried out throughout the road repairs, NEP Consulting Engineers was appointed. “Onsite quality control was conducted by the contractor with help of NEP Consulting Engineers and Strata Lab Testing. Following the quality control, the contractor provided the engineer with the test results,” Tshite explained.

Regarding the remaining potholes, Tshite said the maintenance team would repair the potholes according to a set programme.