Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has revealed the thieves behind the damage to Jakes Gerwel Drive were excavating material to build informal housing and were living inside man-made caves.
They indicated the exact cost due to the extent of damage had yet to be determined.
Councillor Rob Quintas, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility said following an investigation, they learnt the persons responsible for digging under the bridge along Jakes Gerwel Drive at Viking Road towards the N2, were using the material to build informal homes, causing a gap of 120 cubic metres.
The drama unfolded last week when motorists noticed the crack near the bridge and alerted authorities and the City engineers were dispatched.
“People were excavating the fill from under the bridge approach slab. We are not sure why, but suspect it was to use the material to build platforms for informal housing, or to use the sand for construction purposes,” he explained.
“There also appeared to be people living inside the “caves” that were created by the excavations. Without the support of the fill material under the slab, the slab started moving, with extremely high risk of collapse”
Quintas explained that much work still had to be done in creating a deterrent to stop criminals from damaging City infrastructure.
“Up until now, emergency work has been completed on two lanes and emergency repairs continue on the other two lanes. The large voids created under the slab by the illegal excavations have been backfilled with materials to provide support for the slab and make it safe,” he added.
“A final solution, including a final repair and creating hard surfaces to make future illegal excavations more difficult, is still being looked at.
“All the works to date have been emergency works and we have not determined the cost of these works, nor the cost of the final solution yet.”
Quintas said while the bridge structure had not been compromised, criminal activity as this could have had a catastrophic impact.
“This kind of illegal activity has potential disastrous consequences if it causes a collapse in the road. While the actual bridge structure is not affected, the approach to the bridge has been undermined,” he explained.
“The void was estimated to be about 120 cubic meters in size, and if the approach slab collapsed into the void, the hole in the road would be very large. Be as it may, the destruction of public property is a crime.”
Quintas added the road was currently open with two of the four lanes open to traffic while the other two lanes are currently being worked on with the intention of having all four lanes open this weekend.
Meanwhile, local government has since called for those responsible to face the long arm of the law.
The Department of Infrastructure said the Ministry considered acts of vandalism very seriously.
“The Western Cape Department of Infrastructure is not the road authority for this section of road and can therefore not comment on the technical details. The Provincial MEC of Infrastructure, Tertuis Simmers, condemns any vandalism and destruction of public property and assets and calls on law enforcement and prosecuting authorities to act swiftly to find the culprits and bring them to book.
Angus Mckenzie, Sub-Council chairperson for Sub-Council chairperson said a contra lane had been opened to alleviate traffic congestion.