October Transport Month: Flood damaged causeway replacement near Ladismith completed
Media Release by Western Cape Minister of Infrastructure Tertuis Simmers
Severe weather incidents over the past two years have hit the Western Cape provincial road network hard. While the first step is to first restore access, permanent repairs have to follow.
“One such project, the R13.5 million Western Cape Department of Infrastructure (DOI) project to replace a causeway over the Groot River on Divisional Road (DR) 1665 between Riversdale and Ladismith has been completed. Causeway 10991 was so badly damaged that DR1665 was impassable from the R323, restricting access to Van Wyksdorp on the eastern side of the river,” said Jandré Bakker, DOI Director for Operational Support.
“The previous structure was demolished and replaced with a new three-cell causeway structure that has greater capacity to handle large flows of water. A 2 metre wide slab has been built across the full length of the causeway, gabion boxes and mattresses have been put in place to mitigate the risk of the structure being undermined, and the existing gravel road approaches have been rebuilt and regraded on both sides of the causeway,” said Tertuis Simmers, Western Cape Minister of Infrastructure.
“Flood damage repairs are progressing very well across the provincial road network. The team has to balance ongoing operations: large projects in critical phases while repairing damaged infrastructure of which the estimated repair value far exceeds the available resources. I commend our team for their ability to reprogramme and reprioritise projects to ensure we make steady progress while minimising impact on operations and other projects,” Minister Simmers concluded.
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Media enquiries
Melt Botes
Spokesperson to Provincial Minister Tertuis Simmers
Email: Melchior.Botes@westerncape.gov.za
Tel: 021 483 8067
Cell: 082 431 0068
Stephen Heyns
Acting Head of Communication, Department of Infrastructure
Email: stephen.heyns@westerncape.gov.za,
Tel: 021 483 0597
