After multiple delays, works to rehabilitate and reconstruct the pothole-riddled R74 road between Harrismith and Oliviershoek, the gateway to the Drakensberg, started at the end of January.
The Free State provincial government appointed a contractor, Edwin Construction, on January 9 and awarded a R120m contract to ‘rehabilitate and reconstruct’ the road. A spokesperson for Edwin Construction told Tourism Update that work on the road had started on January 21 and was expected to be completed by September 21, 2016. He said: “We are entirely rebuilding 16km of the road and rehabilitating another 7km.”
Local tourism establishments, which have been heavily affected by the degenerated state of the road, are cautiously optimistic about the appointment of a contractor and are adopting a wait-and-see attitude. Jean Carte, owner of Montusi Mountain Lodge, says: “To date we have no knowledge of any action. We will believe it when we see it!”
Product owners along the road were promised in 2010 that the road would be rehabilitated. However, a few months into the rehabilitation contract, the Free State roads department ran out of money. The main contractor, Sanyati Civil Engineering and Construction, went under when it was not paid for work worth R40m. As a result, two well-known resorts along the road were forced to close their doors.
Petré Theron, Manager of ATKV Drakensville, says a lot of work needs to be done and it is quite ambitious to attempt to finish the rehabilitation of the road within 18 months. However, he is confident that this time the road will actually be fixed. He says: “We’ll make a lot of noise once the road has been rehabilitated to let everyone know.”
