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Seaview Road crisis must be resolved before loss of life

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The ongoing crisis regarding to the flooding of the Seaview Road in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropole needs to be attended to as a matter of urgency. A functional roads network is the life blood of a city’s economy. When it becomes dysfunctional, it has economic consequences, ultimately impacting on jobs.

This week PE-south Constituency Leader, Bobby Stevenson (MPL) and DA Ward 1 councillor, Stanford Slabbert, assessed the problems in Seaview Road, which has been under water for a month and will probably be for another two months. (Aerial view of the Seaview Road under water)

This is a provincial road. I have requested DA Shadow MEC for Roads, Pine Pienaar, pursue this matter with the Department of Roads and Public Works as a matter of urgency.

This problem is due to the lack of drainage. There are various engineering solutions to this, including capturing the water and pumping it away.

This road is one of the main routes taken by tourists when visiting the Seaview Lion Park and Island Reserve. Lack of access to key tourist facilities ultimately impacts on our economy as the tourist spend is a key component of economic development.

It needs to be fixed so tourists and local residents are not inconvenienced further. Unless one deals with the situation as a matter of urgency, the foundations of the road are going to become undermined and will cause the road to collapse, resulting in major repair costs. The surrounding road network is also taking a pounding which will cause a faster deterioration of these routes due to increased traffic.

This matter must be attended to as this situation will continue to reoccur with greater frequency as a result of the run-off caused by ongoing development in the area.

A further concern is the potential for loss of life or serious injury due to poor warning signage. Unsuspecting motorists are unaware that the water is up to 2 metres deep in places.

Bobby Stevenson, MPL

Click here to see an aerial view of the Seaview Road under water.

Stanford Slabbert and Bobby Stevenson Seaview
Stanford Slabbert and Bobby Stevenson inspect the flooded Seaview Road
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Port Elizabethan

This author is a 'catch-all' for occasional articles and letters written to MyPE. The Author of each article can be found in the signature at the bottom of each individual article.

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