Motorists frustrated by work on R56
ROADWORKS to the tune of R635-million, being conducted on the stretch of R56 going through Indwe to Maclear, are frustrating some motorists who claim their trips are delayed by over an hour.
Mbulelo Peterson, Sanral Southern Regional manager, said: “The scope [of the roadworks] entails the resurfacing of the R56 through [the] towns [of Indwe, Elliot, Ugie and Maclear].
“Furthermore, it includes the special maintenance of the rural sections between towns followed by a resurfacing over the entire length. The project includes construction packages for SMMEs [small, medium and micro-sized enterprises] in towns and along the route.”
Tau Pele Construction (Pty) Bloemfontein was contracted to this work.
Peterson said the roadworks were needed as “Sanral’s network management system has revealed this section of the R56 to be in a poor state requiring special maintenance intervention.
“The contract was awarded to Tau Pele Construction in November 2015. Work commenced in February 2016 and is scheduled to end in December 2018. The project suffered inclement weather delays of four months to date. This may increase depending on the weather.”
He added that adjustments had to be made since the project started as “due to the inclement weather and the effect of it on the road, more repairs to the layerworks will be required”.
Peterson said that steps were being taken by Tau Pele to accommodate motorists.
“Stop-and-go actions are managed by Tau Pele to lessen the impact of the delays but also to allow progress in the construction of the road.”
Rodney Wicks, a frustrated Maclear resident who regularly uses the road to Elliot, said it took him one-and-a-half hours to drive just 70km and that on that one stretch of road, there were four or five stop-and-gos.
“They block off five kilometres of road to work on a couple of metres. On the Easter weekend they left kilometres and kilometres of road closed. Everybody is moaning, they’re doing the cheapest possible job. You can’t even drive on some of the through roads with a normal car. We can’t carry on like this.” Ltd from carry out