The City of Cape Town urges residents surrounding the Welcome Zenzile road link which links Ndlulamthi Street in Khayelitsha to Ntlolokshane Street in Kuyasa, to please stay clear of the cordoned off area. A portion of the embankment slopes of this road has eroded away as a result of a sewage spill caused by a blockage in the overloaded sewer system. Read more below:

The incident was reported to the City of Cape Town on 7 February 2022. The Roads Infrastructure Management team in the district immediately conducted a site visit and found that a blocked sewer was overflowing into the roadway and that the sewage was flowing down towards a low point in the road. The sewage spill overtopped the kerb and footway blockages causing the side slopes of the road to erode

The blockage in the sewer, which was immediately cleared by the City’s Water and Sanitation department is more than likely to have been caused by solid objects which had been illegally dumped into the system. A combination of windblown sand and sewage had blocked the stormwater inlet and discharge pipe which caused the sewage to overtop the kerb and footway behind, and to run down the embankment which could have resulted in the wash away that is now evident.

‘Allegations that this incident was a result of below standard construction or materials used for this project is completely unfounded and false. This is not a bridge as was reported on social media, this road link crosses over a depression in the landscape,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility, Councillor Rob Quintas.

The contract for the extension of Welcome Zenzile Street over the open space between Khayelitsha and Kuyasa was awarded to Baseline Civil Engineering contractors. Construction commenced on 25 May 2021.

This was the second contract that had been awarded for this work, the first one having been terminated by the contractor as a result of ongoing threats and intimidation from elements within the local community. The City remained determined to see this much needed road link constructed despite these setbacks and successfully appointed Baseline who performed extremely well in executing the project. The completion was certified by 8 December 2022.

‘To ensure the highest standard of work the City appointed an Independent Employer’s Agent, a professional service provider, to closely monitor the progress and standard of work throughout the project. These professionals would only certify payments in respect of work completed according to the various standard specifications. The entire project and standard of work was also closely monitored by the appointed  City project manager, who regularly visited the site. Both the service provider and project manager certified that all works had been completed to the required standard and confirmed that all the inlets and stormwater systems were clear and fully functional at the time that the completion was certified,’ said Quintas.

The stormwater system at the low point in the road was designed to mitigate the risk of blocking by doubling up on the kerb inlets and keeping pipe lengths to the absolute minimum by discharging stormwater via open chutes instead. However, in this case, the overtopping of the footway resulted in a spreading of the discharge, which was not collected in the chutes constructed, and therefore resulted in this erosion.

‘Taking into account that a repeat blockage of this nature cannot be completely eliminated, the project team is currently in the process of finalising a design solution for the repairs this week. Thereafter a contractor will be appointed to do the remedial repair works as soon as possible. It is expected that the process may take approximately four weeks before the appointed contractor mobilises on site,’ said Quintas.

Temporary (safe making) measures were implemented by 9 February 2022, where the team placed concrete new jersey barriers in the roadway to keep traffic away for the edge. Appropriate warning signs have also been erected. Although this resulted in the narrowing of the roadway, the width that remains open to traffic is safe for use in the interim. The kerb inlets and catch pits were also cleared after the incident.

‘The City urges residents in the area to please refrain from dumping solid waste items illegally. If we do not stop illegal dumping into the system, we cannot guarantee that sewer spills in this area will ever stop or even occur less frequently,’ said Quintas

The City’s Water and Sanitation team is however currently investigating if there is anything that can be done to mitigate the risk of the sewer blockage re-occurring.

Source: City Of Cape Town