Night shift for John Ross chaos

Dave Savides

HUGE traffic snarls on the John Ross Highway will be a thing of the past next week as road builders move to working at night.
The decision was announced at Wednesday’s meeting of the John Ross Project Liaison Committee.
Commuter and constructor frustration reached red hot levels over the past week as long ‘stop/go’ queues formed during resurfacing of the old John Ross Highway.
Drivers hurled abuse at road workers, who in turn, were at risk from dangerous drivers.
‘Responding to safety concerns in the light of areas of advanced deterioration, we have an R11,2-million budget to resurface the old road by the end of December, using emerging contractors’ said a spokesperson.
‘We tried at first to keep two lanes open but it became too dangerous, with long delays, queue jumping and vehicles - especially trucks - speeding.
‘In fact, one of our staff was struck by a truck and trailer.’

Proposed agenda
Subject to sub-contractors being able to get their planning done and the availability of asphalt at night, the ‘late shift’ should begin on Sunday night.
‘It will entail extra costs, such as flood lighting, while security at night will be an added risk,’ said the spokesman.
‘On the positive side, while work in the day is only possible from 9am to 3pm, outside of peak traffic, at night more hours will be possible.’
The programme ahead is as follows:
• The section from the eSikhawini robots to the Mondi robots will be surfaced at night over the next two weeks and will entail a stop/go system
• After this, the Mondi to Alton robots section will be done, with all John Ross traffic having to re-route between the Mondi intersection via the new Kraft Link access road to Ceramic Curve in Alton
• Similarly, when the section between the Alton and CBD (Foskor) robots is being resurfaced, John Ross traffic will be diverted along alternate routes.

HUGE traffic snarls on the John Ross Highway will be a thing of the past next week as road builders move to working at night.
The decision was announced at Wednesday’s meeting of the John Ross Project Liaison Committee.
Commuter and constructor frustration reached red hot levels over the past week as long ‘stop/go’ queues formed during resurfacing of the old John Ross Highway.
Drivers hurled abuse at road workers, who in turn, were at risk from dangerous drivers.
‘Responding to safety concerns in the light of areas of advanced deterioration, we have an R11,2-million budget to resurface the old road by the end of December, using emerging contractors’ said a spokesperson.
‘We tried at first to keep two lanes open but it became too dangerous, with long delays, queue jumping and vehicles - especially trucks - speeding.
‘In fact, one of our staff was struck by a truck and trailer.’

Proposed agenda
Subject to sub-contractors being able to get their planning done and the availability of asphalt at night, the ‘late shift’ should begin on Sunday night.
‘It will entail extra costs, such as flood lighting, while security at night will be an added risk,’ said the spokesman.
‘On the positive side, while work in the day is only possible from 9am to 3pm, outside of peak traffic, at night more hours will be possible.’
The programme ahead is as follows:
• The section from the eSikhawini robots to the Mondi robots will be surfaced at night over the next two weeks and will entail a stop/go system
• After this, the Mondi to Alton robots section will be done, with all John Ross traffic having to re-route between the Mondi intersection via the new Kraft Link access road to Ceramic Curve in Alton
• Similarly, when the section between the Alton and CBD (Foskor) robots is being resurfaced, John Ross traffic will be diverted along alternate routes.