Over R32 million has been allocated by the Johannesburg Roads Agency towards the construction and rehabilitation of the Kilburn Street culvert infrastructure and road in Discovery, Roodepoort.
The R32 million was allocated from the agency’s capital expenditure budget for the 2023/24 financial year.
Joburg’s Transport Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC), Councillor Kenny Kunene, and the JRA's Acting CEO, Zweli Nyathi, launched the project in a sod-turning event on Wednesday.
The road was first partially closed in 2020 after severe embankment erosion and the collapse of a corrugated stormwater culvert pipe.
In December last year, after the heavy rains caused the culvert structure to collapse, a full road closure between Celeste Crescent and Syd Dwyer Road was implemented, with traffic diverted to alternative routes.
Kunene said Kilburn Street served as an access route to the Kilburn Shopping Centre, the King's School Discovery, and businesses in the area. “Rehabilitating and restoring the road and bridge will improve mobility and relieve traffic congestion currently experienced on the alternative routes," said Kunene.
Nyathi said it was a massive project that would also entail the excavation of trenches for drains.
He said the storm water pipes and associated structures, the laying and bedding of concrete pipes and culverts, the construction of inlet, outlet, junction, and manhole structures, as well as the construction of gabion earth retaining structures and erosion protection structures in water courses
Ngathi said the traffic diversion route will remain in place throughout construction.
IOL