Today three people demonstrated to the St Francis Bay community how the plague of potholes can be brought under control using a bitumen water-based solution.
Recognised by SANRAL and municipalities countrywide, the product belongs to Henry Goedhals, who owns a house in St Francis Bay and who also owns Asphalt Solutions.
Goedhals hopes to help rally residents to support the project. “Water is a tarred road’s worst enemy,” he explains. “When water gets into the cracks in the road it lifts the tar and potholes start to form. Although the Council has been doing what it can with the resources it has available, filling potholes with earth and stone which wash away with every rain event is not a viable solution.”
Goedhals volunteered his time and materials to fix some potholes in the car park at the Village Centre after Nigel Aitken, project manager of the St Francis pothole repair project, Milkwood Save Our Roads Campaign, approached him for advice on the pothole crisis. Today Aitken worked alongside Goedhals and Thomas Maphoney to repair potholes in the St Francis Bay Village shopping centre car park.
Aitken recently undertook to project manage the campaign so as to repair as many potholes as possible before the December holiday influx of visitors begins.
(See: http://stfrancischronicle.com/2011/08/04/we-fix-our-own-potholes/ )
Aitken reiterates that the campaign’s purpose is to help the council and the community get through the crisis. “We are by no means accepting responsibility for the repair and maintenance of our roads in the future,” he says.
“That responsibility must and will remain with the Council. However the fact is that the Council has no financial resources available at present to handle the crisis. If we residents don’t step in now to do what we can, a disaster is looming. The roads are unsafe and our property values and tourism are being negatively impacted.”
If you wish to contribute to the campaign please send your pledge to: editor@themilkwoodspeaks.co.za. A bank account dedicated to the campaign is being opened and details will soon be available.
Major businesses and tourism destinations including the St Francis Village SuperSpar and St Francis Links have pledged support. For further information contact Aitken on: cell: 0824653719; email: nigel@inspectahome.co.za.
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