The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is deeply concerned that the upgrade of the Solomon Mahlangu Drive will be delayed because of the contractor, UMSO has applied for business rescue.
See letter here.
This is yet another road in Gauteng that will be left unfinished because the contractor is unable to complete the job due to money woes.
The K69 project which is the Solomon Mahlangu drive upgrade from K54 at Mahuba Valley in Mamelodi to the R104, Pretoria is costing the Gauteng Provincial Government R285 million and is supposed to be completed in August 2021.
As part of the upgrade the existing gravel should will be reconstructed, asphalt surfacing and drainage improvements will be made, road markings will be redone, damaged signs repaired and the guardrails will be repaired.
In addition, a dual carriage-way will be built, which will help to increase capacity as well as improve road safety.
The same thing happened with William Nicol Drive. The upgrades to this road are still not complete because of the contractor’s inability to complete the project. This resulted in the Department of Roads and Transport once again advertising this tender.
It appears as though it is a trend that contractors appointed by the Gauteng Department of Transport do not complete the upgrades of roads in the province. This is concerning as the maintenance of roads is extremely important to ensure that road fatalities do not occur.
The DA will be closely monitoring the business rescue process of UMSO construction and the work currently been done on Solomon Mahlangu drive.