Municipality says rebuilding was needed due to 'signs of wearing'

Date: 25 January 2024 By: Andries van Zyl

The Makhado Municipality responded this week to residents’ complaints about the state of the newly rebuilt Stubbs Street in Louis Trichardt and what had necessitated the project.

One Stubbs Street resident, Corné Smith, was very outspoken about the new paved road. “I am unhappy about the road. The old road had nothing wrong with it - absolutely nothing! Why replace it?” Smith was quoted in an article about the street in last week’s newspaper.

Smith also mentioned that the money spent on replacing a perfectly good road could have been used better somewhere else. “Louis Botha Street [running parallel to Stubbs Street] is undrivable. In Anderson Street, from Ruh Street past the prison, you cannot drive in a straight line because you have to drive around the potholes. Why did they not use the money to fix these roads?” Smith questioned.

The Makhado Municipality, through spokesperson Louis Bobodi, responded to the newspaper’s media enquiry about the rebuilding of the road on Sunday. “The existing base layer was showing signs of wearing off, and to avoid further deterioration, it was prioritized for rehabilitation as part of the streets maintenance program. It's also important to note that these streets were designed for low traffic volume, and as the town has grown, there is also an increase in traffic volume,” said Bobodi regarding what had necessitated the rebuild.

Asked why the municipality had opted to replace the tarred road surface with paving bricks, Bobodi said: “The municipality has opted for using paving bricks than surfacing because it's quick to maintain and also good for shear stress resulting from the turning movement, especially of heavy vehicles.”

Bobodi confirmed that the project was advertised in May last year under tender number 52/2023 as a three-year panel tender and that the contractors allocated to the rehabilitation of the above-mentioned street were chosen from the database of the three-year panel.

The project for the rebuilding of the Stubbs Street intersection at Krogh Street and the road up to Anderson Street was handed over by the Makhado Municipality at the end of last year - one of five site handovers, with three taking place on 11 October and two on 17 November. These were for the rehabilitation of Rissik Street; rehabilitation of Stubbs Street; rehabilitation of Songozwi Street; rehabilitation of Barnard Street; and rehabilitation of Unica Street. The total value of the five projects is just under R25-million. Different contractors were appointed for the projects, with Tshashu Consulting and Projects being the consulting engineers on all five projects.

Asked about Tshashu Consulting and Project’s relationship with the Makhado Municipality as the consulting engineers on all five projects, Bobodi said: “Tshashu Consulting and Project were appointed on merit to render civil engineering, design and supervising the project during the construction stage.”

Another question asked by many was why the contracts were allocated at the end of the year and at the start of the rainy season as rain delays and damage caused by sporadic flooding are common during the latter part of the year in the region. “According to the General Conditions of Contracts that regulate construction in South Africa, it allows the contractors to claim the number of lost days due to rain - hence there are no restrictions as to when construction should commence,” said Bobodi in reply.

As to whether the municipality had signed off on the project, the final inspection of the project was scheduled to take place last Thursday. The outcome of this inspection is currently not known. Bobodi did, however, indicate that the municipality was holding on to a retention amount, which will be released after a 12-month defects-liability period.

In our article last week, a spokesperson for the contractor involved (N&C Civils) stated that they were aware of outstanding issues regarding the project but categorically stated that the project was not completed. They also put it on record that the project for the rebuilding of both the Stubbs Street intersection with Krogh Street and the road surface from the intersection to Anderson Street was one project, and not two projects as rumoured. The total contract value for both was R3.6-million. Bobodi stated that the approved budget for the budget was initially R6-million and that N&C Civils was appointed for just over R3.6-million. The project expenditure to date, Bobodi said, was R1,478,450.

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

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