Update from Mr Gerhard Otto, Manager Emergency Services in the Eden District, regarding possible roads between Oudtshoorn and George (The main road – N12 – between the two towns was closed after a rock fall):
An onsite inspection of the Chandelier detour was carried out on Friday by the District Roads Engineer (DRE), some of his staff and a whole delegation who formed part of a working group.
After careful consideration of the various propositions, the following were unanimously agreed upon:
1) That at this stage the Chandelier detour cannot be seen as a suitable alternative as the time that it would take to get this road to a standard safe enough to deal with approximately 1 000 light vehicles per day, would exceed the time a contractor would need to free-up one lane past the existing rock fall area on the N12;
2) All indications are that a contractor has been appointed and that he would be on site by Monday the 15th.If everything goes according to plan then it might be possible to free up one lane on a stop-go basis past the rock fall area within 7-10 days after the work has commenced;
3) In order to accommodate business and industry the approval was granted by the DRE that all trucks in possession of a permit would be allowed to use the Heimersrivier detour outside peak times. Peak times has been defined as between 5:00 and 7:00 in the morning as well as between 17:00 and 19:00 in the evening;
4) Permits referred to in (3) can be obtained from the Eden Municipal Disaster Management Centre (MDMC) at York Street 54 in George or at the Agri Klein Karoo Offices in Voortrekker Street, Oudtshoorn. To obtain permits for vehicles above 3,5 ton conditions would apply;
5) Signage as well as traffic law enforcement on both the Heimersriver as well as Robertson Pass detours will be beefed-up over the weekend. Traffic officials will be checking if motorists as well as trucks do have the necessary permits to use the applicable detours. Note: the road past the rock fall area is closed and cannot be used, permits issued is only for use on the Heimersrivier detour.
6) A follow-up meeting with both the consulting engineers as well as the appointed contractor has been scheduled to take place on Tuesday the 16th at 12:00 in the conference hall, Oudtshoorn Experimental Farm.
