IT is not for nothing that Windhoek has been called the “gem” of Africa with its clean streets, pot hole free roads and a Municipality that puts its money where its mouth is to budget big for a superior infrastructure.
But course it is the hard working road maintenance teams from the City of Windhoek who are responsible for keeping their fingers on the pulse of any problems that may arise throughout the year, and give us residents a capital to be proud of.
In fact City of Windhoek Dirk Reed (Chief Engineer Roads and Storm water), is the first to say that the City of Windhoek prides itself in maintaining its road infrastructure for motorists, and that their teams are regularly busy with repairs all over town.
“The City of Windhoek have again budged N$60-million for road repairs during the current financial year, running from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014,” Reed told Woema yesterday.
“A tender for the re-sealing of roads will be awarded to a contractor by the middle of next month, who will responsible for re-seal work on streets that we have identified. The big work will begin by the end of September, but currently the City of Windhoek is still continuing with the town’s road maintenance with our team of contractors.
“The N$40-million that is set aside for this project will cover large areas, and will ultimately prevent us dealing with damage control and pot holes if we get another heavy rainy season.
“Also in the absence of a past rainy season, damages have been kept to a minimum with roads holding out a lot longer than they would in the wet months. But fixing and re-seal damaged roads is an going project, with sections of roads in all the different suburbs ear-marked for repairs and fresh road markings.
Reed pointed out that the road maintenance project is separate from tarring of new roads in Windhoek, and that the City of Windhoek have a tarring programme that runs separately especially in the Northern areas of the capital. For this project alone council has budgeted N$50-million.
Woema also caught up with one of the road marking teams in the suburbs last week, where fresh paint was being laid on the recently tarred surfaces. “This is a full time job,” said Gerald. “The City of Windhoek is continuously up grading and re-painting the road markings in streets which have been re-surfaced or where the markings are faded and unclear.
“Currently there are 12 road marking guys split up in the different areas, and is a job that we all enjoy, because when you look at the finished product you know that our work has contributed towards Windhoek being a street smart city.”
With continued road works going on all over the city, the public have been cautioned to drive with care, and to slow down when approaching the repair teams and street painters, who are working under strict guidelines to ensure that the markings are laid on correctly to facilitate smooth traffic flow.
08 Aug 2013 – Story by Donna Collins