The Pothole Repair project team in St Francis Bay will place concrete at the Harbour Road and St Francis Drive intersection as soon as the national municipal workers’ strike is over.
This will be the first section of potholes repaired by the project team that has collected R62 000 already. The pothole repair project was initated by Johan Dippenaar of the newsletter Milkwood Speaks.
The plans for the repair work, using concrete, were designed by consulting Structural and Civil Engineer, Herman Pietersen. The work will be overseen by Miles Cuffe, an experienced contractor. The Kouga municpal assistance will be in the form of labour and equipment.
Municipal officials are due to conduct temporary repair work to the particularly bad bend in Terragona Road this week so that traffic can be diverted along this route while the road work is in progress on St Francis Drive.
The municipality will post and hand out flyers advising the public of the diversion once a firm date has been set for the project team to start its project. “Unfortunately this will inconvenience people travelling to and from St Francis village and Santareme, however there appears to be no alternative,” the project team’s press release said.
“We envisage the diversion will need to be in place for a period of around one week. The actual construction will probably be completed in two days. However once the concrete is thrown it must be allowed to set which will take most of the week. The intersection might be opened sooner for light vehicles depending on weather conditions.”
The second area to be concreted will be the dip between Harbour and Walton Roads in St Francis Drive. While this project is underway drivers will detour via Walton or Lovemore Crescent.
The Kouga Council has advised that once the strike is over, it will start repairing potholes supervised by the community project team.
“We are obliged to work with municipal labour so we are protected by the Kouga Council’s indemnity. Consequently we have been delayed in starting.
“The bank account for the project is now open and those who have been generous enough to pledge their support can now make their payments. At last count we have been promised R62 000! The amount of projects we can undertake is wholly dependent on how much money is raised.”
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