Details gloomy about road and water repairs
A Vumatel programme manager at the scene, Garry Powell, unpacked what led to the incident.
It is unclear at this stage how long it will take for the water supply to be restored and the collapsed Peter Road infrastructure to be repaired.
Traffic was diverted this morning, Friday, 6 July, when the road collapsed into a sinkhole, and the route was closed-off.
Read the initial article here: Motorists cautioned about collapsed road
A Vumatel programme manager at the scene, Garry Powell, unpacked what led to the incident. “We had a service hit at about 10am yesterday morning, 5 July, which was minor and the call was logged. Johannesburg Water came out last night to fix it but they did not have the correct spares with them. They left after turning the water off and said they would be back this morning about 9am to fix the problem,” he explained.
Garry added that when his employees got to the site this morning the water was not off. “The water was running freely and had gone down the trench which we dug and found a weak spot connecting the mug and the bridge, which caused the road to collapse,” he further explained.
He said he isn’t sure when the road or the water will be fixed.
Ward 97’s councillor, Leah Knott, said she had contacted the Joburg Roads Agency and Johannesburg Metro Police to close the road formally and manage the traffic.
Traffic has been diverted through a ring road along Walnut and Cyprus Roads. A resident has already complained about the traffic jam on both dirt roads, which is causing dust and threatening the integrity of the bridge on Cyprus Road as vehicles are apparently pushing to cross the one-lane bridge simultaneously, instead of one at a time.
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