Long road to repair storm damage in south Durban

FOLLOWING the storm in October last year that damaged the city’s road infrastructure, mostly in its southern areas, the ethekwini Municipality is making progress with repairs.

Areas like emanzimtoti, Isipingo, umlazi and the Bluff bore the brunt of the storm damage, with 3 112 households in 60 wards affected.

The city reported that repairing infrastructure would cost more than R576 million.

Engineering-related repairs would require R308m, the Department of Human Settlements required R250m, disaster management and emergency control, R4.1m, parks and recreation, R7.7m, cleaning and solid waste, R1.3m, electricity R2.6m and water and sanitation R2.3m.

Bluff ward councillor Jean-pierre Prinsloo said Tara, Brighton, Stableford and Donnaleigh roads, and Chipstead Avenue were severely damaged by the storm, costing the city more than R2.8m in repairs.

Repairs on Tara and Brightons road had been completed and both had been reopened for use by the community, he said. Repairs on Chipstead Avenue were started on April 19.

The completion of the project has been planned for to be completed within three months.

Repairs to Stableford Road are set to start within the coming weeks as soon as procurement procedures have been completed.

There were multiple other projects that had been placed on the city’s 2018/2019 budget to address other infrastructural issues resulting from the storm, said Prinsloo.

City workers have made progress on repairs on some of the roads affected by a storm in October last year in the southern parts of Durban, including the Bluff and emanzimtoti.