‘New Bayhead Road already packing up’

Parts of the new Bayhead Road – fully upgraded to dual carriageway, and the only access to all the terminals at the southern end of the Port of Durban – are already packing up. Potholes are appearing, and, a major trucker told FTW, are likely to cause costly damage to tyres/ suspension/axles of heavy tractors/trailers and other road-going vehicles. The “delamination” (splitting or separation into layers) of certain sections of the road was first brought to FTW’s attention two weeks ago by David Wilkinson, MD of Elcon Crane Hire – one of the three major crane companies in KwaZulu Natal, with a yard sited just off the Bayhead Rd, and utterly dependent on it for the movement of its units. The problem areas were on the approximately 100-metre-wide bridge across the Umhlatazana Canal, four approximately 10m culverts, and the turn-off roads across the central reservation. The concern at the canal, according to Wilkinson, was that the new thinnerthan- usual blacktop was laid on to several historical layers of old blacktop, then directly onto the concrete floor of the bridge – without the usual flexible base layer of the ordinary road sections. Similarly, the new culverts – bridging pipelines and the like – were blacktop on concrete. Nothing new was done to the cross-over roads. The old, already potholed, road surface was left as is. The problem stemmed from the Transnet blacktop budget of a meagre R7 million allocated to an independent contractor for this entire project. Due to an overrun in the budget the bridge, culverts, turn-off roads and other associated work was cut short, Wilkinson added. The end result has been delamination and the resultant potholes, and danger zones for the 4 000-5 000 trucks that travel the road in both directions each day, plus the 1 000-2 000 cars. The problem is exacerbated by questions about who owns the road, and who is responsible for repairs and maintenance of it. It has been finally confirmed that Transnet owns the road. They, in their turn, have now contracted the eThekwini Municipality roads department to maintain the road. But Adrian Peters, head of engineering for the eThekwini Municpality, told FTW that the agreement only allowed for “reactive maintenance” – a fill-and-patch job for the problem areas. But the long-term solution is a complete relay of the blacktop, he added. “Also, the blacktop would need to be deepened to succeed.” But a budget from Transnet for this sort of job is still not forthcoming. “There are discussions around whether or not the bridge, culverts and crossings would fall under the ‘intermediate’ clause of another fund available to Transnet,” Peters said. “But that’s where it still is at the moment. No commitment yet.” What the municipality wanted to see, according to Peters, was a longerterm rehabilitation plan, and a rationalisation of ownership of the road. “We’re looking at taking over the ownership of the public sections of the road – everything but the entry ramps and roads in the Transnet terminals,” he added. But again, he agreed, this is not likely to be decided overnight. Meantime, one night, the potholes on the bridge were filled and patched. “But,” said Wilkinson, “that still leaves the culverts, and the road turn-offs are still absolute disaster areas, just everincreasing potholes and delamination. This filland- patch job is no use – it’s only more potholes waiting to happen.”