Africa-Press – South-Africa. Lilian Ngoyi Street, which was damaged by a gas explosion two years ago, will only be opened for full access on September 12 as contractors still need to finalise matters relating to sidewalks on the street.
This is despite the City of Joburg having said it would be open on Monday.
Joburg mayor Dada Morero said by September 12, everyone will have full access as contractors will finish dealing with a few problems.
“There’s a few things [that] still need to be done. So, we will open the road. However the contractors need to finalise matters on the sidewalk and on September 12 all cars and pedestrians will have full access. We have officially completed the project. It’s just a few matters on the sidewalks and you can come and drive on the road,” he said.
According to Morero, the completion of phase one cost the city R82m.
“R110m has been allocated for work package 1 in the Phase 2 of the project, which will begin immediately. We believe that we should be able to conclude work package 2 of phase 2 by August 2026,” he said.
Zweli Nyathi, CEO of Joburg Roads Agency, said the explosion gave them an opportunity to check underneath the city, something they had not been able to do before.
“We never had an opportunity to check what is underneath, and this project gave us an opportunity to relook at the city and the infrastructure that is underneath, so that we can be proactive in future. This was a learning curve. I remember in the beginning, when we started fixing Lillian Ngoyi, there were so many critics saying, this will never be fixed, this and that, but here we are today. With all the challenges, the rain, and other things, here we are today, we are standing on top of the road,” he said.
Nyathi said they decided to use brick pavement for the rehabilitation of the road instead of tar for aesthetic reasons.
“We are beautifying the city all the way to the transit mall. As part of phase two, you will see that the road will look different, and we want to reduce these lanes. We don’t want our people to rely on heavy motor vehicle influx into the CBD; we want to promote mobility. People must walk, people must feel safe. There is a lot of jaywalking around the CBD, which is not part of safety. So we need to control that as well,” he said.
Morero said the taxi industry, though being one of the stakeholders, needs to address some issues.
“The taxi industry has been there. They’ve been working very well with us. It was shaky sometimes and we continue to engage, however I want to also ask the taxi associations that we have to deal with illegal ranks in the city. We can’t have the ranks just being established everywhere.”
He said they are also focusing on opening the Johannesburg International Transport Interchange (Jiti).
“I want Jiti to be opened. I don’t know why it hasn’t been opened yet, we should have opened it… it was supposed to opened in February but we could not. So I’m giving them the last deadline. You can’t have an investment of about a billion rand sitting for many years. Officials are not moving.
“So the commitment is that by the first of December, [it] will be to open and [the] officials are going to deliver.”
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