Rehabilitation works on Allandale road in Gauteng South Africa has begun after a four year delay due to differences between the provincial government and the developers that resulted in a tender being withdrawn twice since it was first issued. According to Gauteng MEC for public transport and road infrastructure Jacob Mamabolo, the relationship between the department and the developers was not good which led to disagreements on the implementation of the project hence the delays.
Construction of a temporary bypass
The MEC and developers met recently to agree on the way forward and reached an agreement on how the road work would be undertaken without disrupting traffic flow on the busy road. Both parties agreed that work must start with the construction of a temporary bypass to ease traffic flow and minimize any disruptions that will be caused by the construction works.
Also Read: Construction works at South Africa’s Broadway Boulevard and Kommetjie Road on track
Chemical blasting will be explored as a first option before conventional blasting. But should conventional blasting be necessary, it would be done outside peak hours and consistent communications would be undertaken to warn road users.
During the construction of the bypass, the road will remain open to road users, who are requested to cooperate throughout the maintenance period. The detour would take about a month to finish but the Allandale maintenance itself was estimated to be finished in three months.
According to Mamabolo, the current state of deterioration of the road requires an urgent intervention through road maintenance and that any further delay on this will have a severe impact on road users.
