This photo of the caving-in walkway opposite Paul Roos Gymnasium was taken recently. It had been repaired last year after the storm had assaulted the embankment it abuts.
It is absolutely atrocious that the contractor did not stabilise the paving that was supposed to last for the next 20 years, and is now also caving in after just one year. The surface isn’t even level, with a very visible hump in the middle.
I can’t believe the Engineering Department didn’t set prescriptive parameters to be met and, more damningly, final inspection clearly was not done, or else such structural weaknesses would have been picked up.
Is this how our municipality functions now? Accepting shoddy workmanship as other municipalities do?
The question is whether the contractor will be called back to snag the whole area, or has he long since taken the money and run? And, will citizens have to pay for someone else to come around to stabilise the area and redo the section?
It is clear that at least 10 m will have to be recompacted and repaved. And all this in the middle of the Stellenbosch Art Mile the municipality is so proud of and has spent millions promoting.
Francois Bossert, EMAIL
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