VEREENIGING. – Much to the excitement of motorists, the Boy Louw Road that is between Steelpark, Sharpeville, and Vereeniging was opened recently.

The road under the bridge on Boy Louw Road towards Vereeniging has for years been problematic, and an annoyance to motorists. There was water that came from the pipes and/or valves under the bridge which led to the flooding of the road.

Before its closure for maintenance late last year, for the safety of their children and the health of the community members, the residents of Kensington Section in Sharpeville blocked an alternative road that passed through their section after the road under the bridge had become impassable for almost a month.

This was due to traffic taking a ‘shortcut’ through the road, now the residents are excited that the huge numbers of traffic that were diverted through the sections of Phelindaba and Kensington will be a thing of the past.

“We are thankful that the road has been fixed as this will reduce the volume of the traffic in our area. The huge trucks that used to go by here we also damaging our roads and they were a threat to our children as this is a residential area. Our children, even ourselves could have been easily knocked down,” residents said.

About the opening of the road, the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) said, that following a 7-month closure due to construction work, the Boy Louw undercarriage was officially reopened for public use.  Executive Mayor Sipho Radebe (on March 7).

Radebe was joined by ELM MMC for Public Works, Tumi Mochawe, and Midday Mali from SANTACO Sedibeng during the opening.

Meanwhile, ELM Municipal Manager (MM) April Ntuli went on an oversight visit to several road rehabilitation projects in Emfuleni on Monday.

Vanderbijlpark, Evaton North, Vereeniging, Duncanville, and Unitas Park witnessed visitors in their neighborhoods assessing the quality of the material used for construction, and the overall progress of some of the 40 road rehabilitation projects currently underway in ELM.

To conclude the program of the day, the EXCO team visited the recently completed Boy Louw undercarriage to get a full understanding of the unfortunate flooding that happened after it was officially reopened for public use.

Municipal Manager Ntuli said that he is happy with the progress made on the projects over such a short period. Ntuli highlighted the necessity of oversight visits and said that they assist in guaranteeing accountability and transparency in the implementation of projects.

He urged communities and other stakeholders to work together with ELM in looking after the roads, electricity, and all other infrastructure projects currently being rolled out across the Emfuleni.