Sinkhole in Strand causes concern
A sinkhole in Beach Road, Strand has raised concern especially on social media platforms after users started posting pictures illustrating the gigantic nature of the hole.
Facebook user, Seema Balram posted a photo of the sinkhole in Strand Road, in the vicinity of the Strand Municipal Swimming Pool, on the Gordon’s Bay Community Group on August 27, and Facebook users were quick to comment that the sinkhole appeared the week before on, Thursday August 22.
Strand resident Sean Evert, who lives close to where the sinkhole is, said to his knowledge the sinkhole first started out as a much smaller one and developed into the huge, huge which has been there for more than a week now. “They must really repair it now because it’s blocking the traffic,” he said as motorists need to take a detour because the part of Beach Road in the section where the sinkhole is has been closed to traffic.
He said it’s not the first huge sinkhole of this nature formed in the areas as previously there as just such a huge sinkhole in De Villiers Street, although he couldn’t recall the exact date when that hole formed. He said he thinks the cause of the sinkhole could be the heavy rainfall and shoddy infrastructure. “I think the rain weakens the infrastructure which in many instances was not done very well to start with.”
Bolander asked the City of Cape Town about the actual cause of the sinkhole, details on the repair process and timeline, possible infrastructure damage and cordoning off of the site. The City’s feedback will be added once received.
When reaching out to ward 83 councillor, Carl Punt, he said he logged the service call to report the matter and it is currently with the directors of the City’s Planning Department Directors for repairs, but that there first needs to be ascertained whether the infrastructure under the road has not been damaged and the location of the sinkhole is in the location of the main direct sewage line to the pump station in Mostert’s Bay, so that is another factor to be taken into consideration by the repair teams.
“Thus, Road Infrastructure Management Services (RIMS) and Water and Sanitation departments are busy investigating it and plans are being made to fix it,” he said. He also clarified that the initial hole was not this big, but the teams have already opened the hole up more to start with their technical assessments and investigations.
