Linaria Drive upgrade receives thumbs-up
AFTER the GO! & Express’s article on February 2 (“Road Rage in City”), the Buffalo City Metro Municipality (BCMM) took to rehabilitating Linaria Drive in Vincent, which is now sporting a new re-tarred section.
One section of Boeing Road in Alphendale has also been scraped to prevent the road from narrowing even further.
“The re-tarring is beautiful, they really got their act together,” Linaria Drive resident, Kenny Romans, said.
The upgrading of the stretch of road in Linaria Drive started last month with the municipality having closed one lane to fix potholes and re-tar the road.
Boeing Road, also mentioned in the GO! & Express’s article, has also seen significant improvements as BCMM cleared the overgrowth that proved to be a danger to drivers and pedestrians.
“We are really happy with the work being done. And amazingly this comes after your [GO! & Express article]. Why do they [BCM] need to be taken to the newspaper first before they act? I am grateful though, because it is the first time in years that I can see the houses and people in the road,” a resident, who did not want to be named, told GO news editor Ethienne Arends while a scraper was busy cleaning up the overgrown area.
“They’ve cleaned it but now they leave this mountain of rubble here, and don’t cart it away. It is just a different eyesore now,” the resident said.
Arends, who lives in Boeing Road, noticed though that the municipality had only cleaned up one section of the circular road, but not the other, which is just as bad.
Henry Steenkamp, who lives opposite the bush that is growing over into the street, also noticed it: “It’s good that they have cleaned on the other side but what about our side? You must come and take a photo here so it will maybe get the municipality to act here too.”
Despite the re-tarring of Linaria Drive and the removal of overgrowth in Boeing Road, the BCM still has a long way to go before its residents will no longer have to deal with potholes and poorly-maintained roads.
BCM spokesperson Sibusiso Cindi said the BCM acknowledged the maintenance backlogs and that it had had allocated R340 648 616 to the upgrading and maintenance of roads for the current financial year.
“Our Roads Branch is currently implementing the Ward Based Project, through which 10 volunteers per Ward are assisting with pothole-patching and storm-water clearing. We have also invested in the rehabilitation of rural roads and the replacement of existing infrastructure,” Cindi said.
He also indicated that the safety of drivers and pedestrians was of great importance to BCM and a programme for the creation of traffic calming and safety measures had been initiated. This programme includes:
● 10.3 km of sidewalks in Mdantsane and Scenery Park;
● 850m of guardrails around Amalinda, Zwelitsha and Mdantsane; and
● 65 traffic calming measures around the metro as a whole.
Cindi said that the BCMM had only received 35% of the required funding for roadworks. “Despite our lack of funds we have gravelled a total of 140.5km of roadway, surfaced 16.8km and maintained 466km of road and stormwater infrastructure,” he said.
However, Cindi did not address the issue of overgrowth still blocking access to the pavements in Linaria Drive and one section of Boeing Road, nor did he indicate any plans to rehabilitate roads and address storm water drain problems in the various areas Smith mentioned. – Additional reporting ETHIENNE ARENDS
