Oudtshoorn, 07 September 2021 – Oudtshoorn Municipality is prioritizing repairing all potholes and focussing on streetlight maintenance and repairs in the Greater Oudtshoorn by embarking on a pothole and streetlight repair drive. The Technical Services Department of the Municipality commits to following a tight programme to ensure that road infrastructure and streetlights receive attention.
“We will circulate a road repairs programme for the respective areas in the western suburb, which has been identified as the critical starting point of the project. While water pipeline upgrades are also underway in some streets, it is planned to complete these projects in conjunction with the road repairs, to avoid duplication and saving costs,” said Mr. Justin Lesch, the technical services director.
“The municipality is currently in the process of re-structuring the current Preventive Maintenance Strategy of the Technical Department as well as finding best practices to utilise available resources more efficiently. The maintenance of infrastructure escalated dramatically based on the way the infrastructure has been maintained historically. Pro-active weekly work schedules are underway to cater for the immediate backlogs on existing infrastructure in all areas, Covid-19 pandemic regulations permitted,” Lesch added.
“It takes quite a bit of logistics these days to ensure that we sustain our current service delivery targets with the allocated timeframe and resources. An additional curveball is that several roads are due for their scheduled life-cycle change-outs, which could be a further challenge. The only way we will be able to cope with the workload is to start working smarter,” he added.
The technical services department is working towards repairing all potholes by the end of October 2021 and have already started with the replacement of the streetlights.
The executive mayor of the Greater Oudtshoorn, Chris Macpherson is urging residents to please report streetlights that are not working as well as potholes to 044 203 3090/3086.
“By working together on this project and supporting each other, we will all be able to achieve our goal to make our roads a pleasure to drive on and our streets lit,” Macpherson said.