Call for repairs to Vissershok Road

Just over 2000 people have signed a petition calling for Vissershok Road to be repaired and resurfaced.

An increase in traffic has left the road riddled with potholes, and its edges eroded to the point where motorists drive in middle or on the wrong side of the road, says the petition.

Tess Rodrigues, who started the petition, said: “I am in a wheelchair due to multiple sclerosis and have lost control over the top half of my body. We already avoid that road at all costs, but occasionally we need to make use of it... The road is so bad that my head bobs on my neck at such a force, when going over a pothole accidentally or quickly trying to avoid one, that I fear getting whiplash.”

She said she had seen roads in far better shape being resurfaced.

Most of Vissershok Road after the Clara Anna Fontein Lifestyle Estate was particularly dangerous, she said.

Department of Transport and Public Works spokesman Jandre Bakker said work was planned for Vissershok Road as part of a maintenance project for provincial roads in Durbanville, which started with Tygervalley Road in December.

“Once this project is complete, in roughly six weeks, similar works/repairs will continue on Vissershok Road,” he said, adding that the five-week project was set to cost around R5 million.

Ms Rodrigues said: “The road shouldn’t just be patched up, but actually widened and properly resurfaced to create a safe slipway onto and off the N7. We want deadlines as to when they intend to start and finish this project.”