Pretoria - The multimillion rand project to upgrade the K69 or Solomon Mahlangu Drive in Pretoria east, which missed its deadline two years ago, has been handed a lifeline to be completed by the end of the 2023/2024 financial year.
Gauteng Transport and Logistics MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela made the announcement during her maiden budget vote speech on Friday.
Diale-Tlabela said her department was in the process of building 18 major arterial roads, upgraded to support Special Economic Zones in an effort to lead an economic recovery.
The identified road projects included the K69 Solomon Mahlangu Drive, the P241 in Lenasia, D483 in Cullinan, K174 Vaal River City Interchange in Vanderbijlpark, K73 Allandale Road in Midrand, and the K46 William Nicol Drive in Diepsloot.
Launched in 2019, K69 missed its initial deadline of August 2021.
Recently, the City of Tshwane’s MMC for roads and transport, Katlego Mathebe, said encroachments on road reserves were a challenge for the upgrading of the R300 million project.
K69’s upgrading was informed by the need to ease traffic congestion during peak hours, but work to expand the number of lanes of the existing carriageway is still under way.
Mathebe also expressed concern about the upgrading of Tsamaya Road, also known as K54 in Mamelodi township, which had to be stopped because of illegal encroachments on the road reserves.
The Tsamaya Road project was started in 2018 and financed by the Gauteng provincial government at a cost of R440m.
It was expected to take 30 months for constructing a north-bound dual carriageway, two bridges over the railway line, cycle and pedestrian paths as well as taxi lay-bys. It is, however, not yet completed.
Diale-Tlabela visited the Tsamaya Road and K69 projects last year and she raised concerns that their delays forced the government to go over budget, which constituted a financial irregularity.
“K69 has been delayed and it is taking from the public purse and it is because somebody didn’t do their job to ensure that we appoint the correct service provider,” she said at the time.
According to her, the service provider appointed for construction under-quoted the work and had to beg for more finances after realising that the expenses on-site were higher than anticipated.
Recently both Mathebe and Diale-Tlabela met with a view to strengthen intergovernmental matters between the City and the department.
Mathebe said: “Key to these discussions includes ensuring that both spheres of government consider all possible ways within the legal frameworks to avoid disrupting subsidised transport in the region and fully service passengers. The City is also engaging with the provincial department to rehabilitate priority roads as set out in the memorandum of understanding envisaged with the City of Tshwane.”
The department committed itself to fast-tracking existing capital projects that have already started in the municipality.
During her delivery of the budget vote speech, Diale-Tlabela said: “We are also fast-tracking the refurbishment of 40 municipal roads in Emfuleni Local Municipality.”
Pretoria News