A Weyers, Table View
I read “Pavement damaged as fibre installed” (Off My Trolley, November 14/15) and I must compliment you on your interventions in assisting the complainant.
I had a similar problem, maybe even worse, as I had to fight to get my driveway re-instated so that I could get my car in without scraping on the bottom.
One of the big failings about the completed works is that it “seems” that the municipality does not have the labour available or possibly the skills to ensure that the work was carried out and re-instated to its original state.
Take a walk from the old Killarney Hotel site down Blaauwberg Road towards the sea. At the bridge over the river no re-instatement was ever done when they laid the ducts and cable across the bridge. It is difficult for anybody to walk there and it is impossible to push a wheelchair, pram or trolley across the excavations.
This is on both sides of the bridge. Somebody installed drain covers all along the Blaauwberg Road and they are installing the covers and frames which now stand about 50mm to 70mm proud of the surface. Somebody attempted to conceal or rectify this by adding a layer of cement and painting it “alert yellow”. Once again prams and trolleys and wheelchairs are a no go.
There are so many examples where it is obvious that nobody did a final acceptance or if they did, they were not very clued up and could not identify the dangers. Incidentally, Vumatel, like the other installers, uses a master contractor who in turn makes use of various sub-contractors. This creates a problem for the residents as you will very seldom make contact with either Vumatel or the master contractor.
The residents’ problems will very seldom be escalated beyond the sub-contractor you have to deal with and you really don’t have access to the real owner of the project.
Once the project is completed they move on you have very little chance of them coming back, even though the “wayleave” was signed as was the case with Wendy Urquhart.
