Sand, rocks and broken concrete blocking the main sewer line from Main Street and manufacturing from scratch a massive concrete sewerage pipe are some of the curve balls thrown at Ndlambe Municipality and their contractors as they race to return Main and Van der Riet streets in Port Alfred from disaster to the CBD’s prime tourist drawcard.
Van der Riet Street, in the CBD, has experienced frequent sewage spills over the past few years. With a new, experienced contractor on board, Ndlambe Municipality vowed to pursue a long-term, sustainable solution. In a notice issued to local businesses and dated November 20, the municipal manager explained that because of multiple underground services, this maintenance plan had been revised. Maintenance work would start on Wednesday November 27 and end on Saturday November 30.
Ndlambe Municipality’s contractor, Amlo Trading, supervised by Lukhozi Consulting Engineers, took just over a week to excavate what residents jokingly called ‘Port Alfred’s Big Hole’, along with a section of Van der Riet Street, to replace the old sewerage line.
On Friday November 29, stunned residents and business owners looked aghast at a massive hole that was rapidly getting bigger. What had started as a simple project to replace a section of sewerage in a section of Van der Riet Street turned into a far bigger, more complicated undertaking.
In a briefing meeting last Tuesday, contractors told local businesspeople their projected completion date was December 13. But because of the massive scale of the excavation and the complications involved, business owners were skeptical and despairing as they predicted their festive season trading going down the drain.
The matter came up in the Ndlambe Council meeting on Wednesday December 11. Citing a little known local government act, EFF PR councillor Xolisa RUneli raised it as “a question of urgency”. Usually, only matters tabled for discussion and included in the agenda are discussed in council.
“What is happening there and why now?” he remonstrated. “And when will it be finished? This is causing a serious headache for ordinary people – never mind the business community.”
Municiipal manager Rolly Dumezweni responded, explaining that the work being done was as a direct result of pressure from the business community in that area.
“They put us under tremendous pressure and with litigation looming, we were forced to go ahead,” Dumezweni said. What had been anticipated would be a simple three-day fix was beset with complications and challenges.
Talk of the Town previously reported that one of these was the twice-daily high tide that filled the diggings with seawater.
This week, they discovered that the replacement for the massive vertical pipe required to replace the existing, broken asbestos one (the “manhole”) didn’t exist: it was out of stock, and would have to be manufactured from scratch.
“That structure is no longer readily available and had to be manufactured from scratch,” infrastr4ucture director Noluthando Vithi told Talk of the Town in an exclusive interview yesterday. “We had to wait for the Gqeberha supplier to specially manufacture that manhole for us.
“Then, because it’s concrete works, it has to cure: its strength depends on how long it’s cured before it is used. So we waited until yesterday, when we sent a truck to Gqeberha. They came back with the manhole and work started at about 5pm (Tuesday December 10) to dig down, remove the old asbestos manhole and replace it with the new one.”
There were many challenges. For a start, the contractor has to align the two sewage lines – one from Main Street and one from Van der Riet Street – within the new manhole.
“They were busy doing that [Wednesday] morning when I went there. They were still preparing the area to receive that manhole.”
The next complication is that as a result of the digging, soil and loose concrete ends up in the sewer line, blocking it.
“We’re managing that by jetting, and removing the stones,” Vithi said.
“One team is busy completing the road surface; the other is busy installing the manhole. We expect to have something to report to ratepayers and businesses on Friday.
“We do apologise for this inconvenience: we understand the timing is not right; but unfortunately the circumstances made it necessary that we carry out the work,” Vithi said.
VIthi said they were pulling out all the stops to complete the work as soon as possible.
“The contractor worked until 2am [Wednesday December 11] on preparing for the installation of the manhole.”
The contractors were likely to continue throughout the weekend, with the new estimated completion date being Monday.
“We’ll be able to provide a more definite timeframe once that manhole is in place.”
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, 12 December 2024. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
