A petition signed by over 1000 Western Cape residents has called for the R304 Old Mare Road to be fixed with immediate effect.
The petition currently sits at 1067 signatures on Changes.org and is hoping to receive 1500 signatures.
The petition calls on Premier Alan Winde, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, MEC Ricardo McKenzie and MEC Tertuis Simmers to “step in and have the R304 Old Mamre Road, also known as the Bomepad, seen to as a matter of urgency. Countless reports of vehicles being damaged due to the severity of potholes on that road as well one fatal accident directly linked to it, must surely qualify this road as a case of emergency.”
“The Bomepad has for years been notorious for bad accidents and now, with all of the potholes it has become more of a death trap. Despite numerous communications sent through by local Councillors and Sub-council 1 staff, not much has been done to get the road fixed.”
Joy Davids, one of the locals who signed the petition said: “My life and that of other motorists and passengers are at stake, everyday the road is left open without repairing it.”
Another resident, Wynand Van der Merwe commented on the petition and said the road is “undriveable”.
Nomusa Cele, a concerned Cape Town motorist, said the road was a death trap and an accident waiting to happen.
“I will never even attempt driving on that road as it poses a serious threat to lives and people’s vehicles,” she said.
Mayco member for Urban Mobility in the City, Rob Quintas said: “The R304, also known as MR215, is currently maintained by the Western Cape Government (WCG), as the responsible road authority, except for a short section where it becomes proclaimed Provincial Divisional Road 1141 through Atlantis,” he said.
The department of infrastructure in the Western Cape said that it is aware of the condition of the R304 Old Mamre Road.
“Planned maintenance on this road, as part of the larger provincial road network, had already commenced on June 19 2023 and is scheduled for completion by end July 2023. This maintenance project of approximately 6 Million on the R304 (MR215) covers approximately 24 km of road,” the department said.
Quintas said that the City had received up until recently complaints of potholes on a handful of roads.
“To address this issue, our teams have been dispatched from our 21 depots to carry out repairs on reported potholes. Part of the repair work includes visual inspection of the roads that have been reported, and adding those to our priority list for maintenance and resurfacing. Inspections have continuously been conducted to assess the severity of the damage and prioritise the repairs accordingly.
“ Unfortunately after the rainy period we had, potholes and surface failures are more eminent and a large number of roads have potholes or surface failures. These are being addressed by specific projects set up by the various District Road Infrastructure Management teams as well as by depot maintenance teams performing remedial maintenance work,” he said.