Ferndale hole remains open, still raising safety concerns
Johannesburg Water has not backfilled the hole on Pretoria Avenue in Ferndale for over a year.
The reinstatement on Pretoria Avenue in Ferndale remains open for over a year since Johannesburg Water (JW) repaired a pipe burst in March 2024.
The road was left with a large hole, and the rubble is still not removed, resulting in motorist being forced to use one lane on the busy road. The area is not only an eye saw; it’s a danger, as it’s close to the pavement and next to the Amazing Grace Private School. The hole is deep and filled with filth, with weeds growing in the rubble.
Read more: Dangerous open manhole finally fixed in Fontainebleau
The exposed pipe suffered another burst in August 2024. The entity repaired it once again, but, once again, the reinstatement was not done. In August 2024, JW spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala said that the entity is aware. She said that the rubble will be removed, but that the hole was still open because the water pipe needed to be re-routed using a special bender. “It needs to be re-routed because it is in line with a storm water drain belonging to Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA). Once this is received, the JW team will do backfilling and a job card for reinstatement work will be created and issued to JRA. The work is scheduled to take place within the next week (August 2024).”
14 months later the reinstatement job has not been done, the rubble has not been removed, and we’re not even sure if the re-routing has taken place.
Ward 104 councillor Emi Koekemoer said, despite the matter having been escalated by both her and councillor Lucinda Harman on separate, repeated instances, JW gave little to no feedback. “It is the same thing that’s happening with all other reinstatements. It’s not getting fixed.”
Question for updates were sent to JW on June 25. Nolwazi Dhlamini acknowledged the enquiry and said the entity will do the backfilling and JRA would do the reinstatement, but failed to provide reasons as to why it has taken the entity this long to fix the issue and the estimated time the work will be completed by.
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