Pretoria - The City of Tshwane head administrator Mpho Nawa proudly reopened John Vorster Drive in Southdowns, Centurion after a deep sinkhole was fixed within deadline and budget despite the lockdown.
Nawa was joined by executives from Southdowns Estate and Southdowns Shopping Centre who said their people would definitely relish free flowing traffic at the busy intersection of John Vorster Drive and Karee Street after the sinkhole appeared in July 2018.
Nawa said: “The formation of the sinkhole cut off easterly and westerly movement through John Vorster Drive as well as access to the Southdowns mall, schools and other amenities which necessitated the City to create a bypass around the sinkhole to temporarily accommodate traffic while repairs were underway.
“The City appointed Ditshimega Projects and Training on December 23 to undertake the repairs to this sinkhole. The contractor did not waste time as repair works started on January 26 this year. Notwithstanding the interruptions experienced due to the Covid-19 national lockdown, the project has been successfully completed within the seven months appointment period."
While the estate and the shopping centre celebrated the efforts made by the City and engineers to divide the road and safely channel traffic into the residency and shopping centre during repairs, the City couldn't be prouder to have saved R2 million which will be directed to repairs of a smaller sinkhole in region four.
Nawa said the project started on January 26, just before the lockdown, at a budget of just over R10 million. But the final cost came up to R7 500 000.
Spokesperson for the City Lindela Mashigo, who was at the scene, said the process which included inspection of the site and geological investigation, among others, discovered that the actual cause of the sinkhole was a leaking main water pipe running across the intersection.
Southdowns Estate general manager Daleen Hennig said residents were very pleased to have such free flowing traffic after such a long time.
"It was a bit frustrating at the beginning but we are happy there was good organising of traffic and now the job is well done and very neat.
"We are extremely happy and we wish to thank the City of Tshwane and all the people who were involved in doing this work," she said.
Southdown Shopping Centre operational manager Frikkie Hetzel said: "We are very happy because this means free flowing traffic to our customers who want to come to the centre.
"Finally we can make this place beautiful again because this is something that occurred but it was fixed within a good time. We appreciate all the work done to get to this level, and we know there was a lot of hard work done“, he said.
Pretoria News