Resident say ‘shoddy’ municipal work endangers road users

The condition of an already dangerously gaping hole along a Garsfontein street worsened earlier this month after yet another bout of alleged shoddy work by municipal workers.

“On 1 September the situation worsened after another water leak occurred the evening before,” resident Raymond Powell said.

“Their efforts to repair the second water leak increased both the depth and area of the original excavation.”

This as residents were already battling a gaping hole along Trevor Gething street in Garsfontein from about six months ago.

The hole was allegedly excavated by municipal workers to repair a water leak.

“No filling took place nor was any effort made to restore the site and the way in which it was left presented a danger to all traffic – both pedestrian and motor vehicles,” Powell said.

He alleged the state of the gaping hole could have worsened “in part due to the fact that the water pipes had been left exposed or because the original excavation had never been filled”.

Powell said the street had become even more dangerous “particularly at night”.

“Approaches have been made to the municipality but they do not even bother to acknowledge receipt of the complaint let alone provide the complainant with some sort of constructive answer,” he claimed.

He added that the pipes and other materials were left “lying around as well” merely added insult to injury.

“This is most certainly nowhere near the type of workmanship that the ratepayers expect.

“The issue is further aggravated by the fact that it is in close proximity to where I live there are other examples of such excavation that have never been filled or restored,” Powell claimed.

He said “ratepayers should not have to tolerate this nor should they have to go to these lengths to get the municipality to fill excavations”, adding the “the standard of working being delivered by the municipality cannot be considered to be anything other than poor”.

“Filling excavation should surely form an integral part of the job,” Powell said.

Ward 45 ward councillor Leo Middleberg said he was alerted to the second water leak only last weekend.

“Once I knew I got the council to come and fix it.”

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Middleberg added the problem was that one company was responsible for filling trenches dug by another.

“It’s done by a separate contractor and that simply means the contractor hasn’t got around to it,” he said.

He explained the metro was experiencing a problem with completing earthworks projects.

“They must all be patient.

“The holes will be attended to once the problem with the contractor is resolved,” Middleberg said.

An engineer who spoke to Rekord on condition of anonymity said the metro was liable for barricading the area to minimise accidents. In the event of the trench being deeper than 1500 metres additional safety measures should be put in place.

In August, Rekord reported yet another intersection in Olympus that caused residents, pedestrians and motorists a similar headache where a hole allegedly dug more than a month earlier remained open.

Resident Reinhard Hettasch said at the time the hole was a safety hazard and the municipality had made very little effort to ensure it was covered.

“No attempts are made to properly backfill the excavations left by the water teams and demarcation is not maintained until such time as the backfill and road repairs are carried out.

“The latter creates a serious safety risk, especially for children,” Hettasch said at the time.

The Tshwane metro had not responded to Rekord’s enquiry at the time of going to press.

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