Minutes English

RETURNTO INDEX PAGE

NJOosthuizen

*2116 ( +27 (0)82 558 5242

Elarduspark2 +27 (0)11 316 4290

00471 nick@inframid.co.za

11 March2005

Bokamoso EnvironmentalConsultants

Lizelleg@mweb.co.za

Copy per fax 012 3482365

Attention: LizelleGregory/Mientjie Coetzee

Dear Lizelle and Mientjie,

PRELIMINARY DESIGNOF ROAD 2382 BETWEEN ROADS K220 AND K54

COMMENTS ON THEDRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING REPORT (ESR) FOR ROAD 2382

Your valued invitationto comment on the draft report refers. On behalf of the users of Roads2382 & 2383 and the residents along the Road 2383, our specific commentsare included in paragraph 3 below.

Introduction

As motivated belowit is imperitave to understand that both the Roads 2382 and 2383 are causinga serious dust and mud problem impacting on health and road safety of residentsalong and users of the R21, M57, 2382 and 2383 roads.

Your proposals willcertainly only solve a very small part of the problem and add further problemsto the equation.

If you would justtarr the section of the existing road from the Doornkloof East sign northof the St George Hotel to the Doornkloof East sign south of it (Roads2383 and 2382 [Km5.3 to Km3.3]) and put an on-off ramp at the R21-Apolloroad crossing, you would get rid of 99% of the dust problem impacting onthe R21 and the residents of this area.

You will recall thatthe Secretary of the DKOA (Mr DV Larsen) emphasised at the closing of thelast meeting that the community wanted the legal status of the roads establishedwith the view to limiting the speed on the roads by means of speed humpsand other measures to lay the dust before the end of 2004. This has nowpassed - the question is:

How long is Provinceprepared to consider the health and safety of this community as of no consequence?

Motivation

Roads 2382 and2383 (not only 2382), initially intended as right-of-ways, have evolvedinto poorly constructed Provincial gravel or rather dust roads that arenow, due to various reasons as stated below, used extensively by provincialtraffic including a high percentage of heavy vehicles.

The poor constructionand the extensive usage of both the above roads are causing a serious dust,mud and safety problem, having a severe impact on:

the health of our residentfamilies and in particular on members of my own family;
the road safety of theusers of these two roads due to extensive dust, mud, poor geometric andsurface conditions;
the road safety of R21users due to poor visibility caused by the dust generated from boththese roads;
the road safety of P122-2(M57) users due to poor visibility caused by the dust generated from Road2383 running right next to the M57;

After our numerousrequests over many years we were reassured a number of times that the matteris receiving attention and we expected that this process would be addressingit and were absolutely surprised to find out at the last meeting that itis not intended to address it at all and is only about solving dust problemson the R21 and some other irrelevent reasons.

It is very clear thatthe solutions as proposed in the ESR will only address a small part ofthe problem, not mentioning that it expresses little or no concern aboutbeing a health hazard to residents and users. This is totally unacceptable.

We can no longer toleratethe dust and mud caused by the extensive usage of these main entrancesto our area, which now also serve as through roads (Roads 2383 and 2382).Because of the impact on our community as mentioned above, it is essentialthat this problem be eliminated in the short term (next few months, beforethe winter), by whatever means.

Detail comments onthe ESR

Our comments referto the "public participation" and the "recommendation" sections of theEnvironmental Scoping Report for Road 2382. Should these comments affectany other parts of the document, those parts should also be interpretedaccordingly.

3.1 General comment

We are of the strongestopinion that the upgrade of Road 2383 and the section of Road 2382 betweenKm5.3 and Km3.3 (collectively referred to as the "M57 uphill by-pass")cannot be separated from each other, as this route is presently as a wholethe main problem in the area. Vehicles targeting the total area west ofthe R21 and the area east of the Sterkfontein right-of-way prefer to useRoad 2383 as their main entrance into the area. This route is also usedextensively as a by-pass of the M57 uphill.3.2 Specific commentson Paragraph 7 - "Public Participation"Regarding "Mainissues of concern"Dot three. This issueshould also refer to Road 2383.

Dot six I recall thatspeed humps were requested for the right-of-way sections located on privateproperty.

Dot eight. This issueis not recorded correctly and should be changed to read:

"Vehicles useRoads 2382 (Km5.3 to Km3.3) and 2383 to avoid going uphill on P122-2 (M57),which is the present throughway and main access road of the area."

The following perspectivewas given at the meeting and was requested to be included in the minutes:

Many vehicles use theroute along Roads 2382 (Km5.3 to Km3.3) and 2383 between the two intersectionswith the M57 when travelling on the M57 south-bound towards Olifantsfontein,Ivory Park, Midrand and the Concrete World area in order to avoid the steepuphill on the M57 between these two intersections. This is in fact whatcauses high traffic usage on both the 2382 and 2383 roads (we refer toit as the "M57 uphill by-pass"). A further problem, but a lesser one isthe usage of the Road 2382 and the Sterkfontein right-of-way by vehiclestravelling to the Apollo road brickyards. The high usage is thus from 2382(Km 5.3 to Km 3.3) and then along 2383 to its southern intersection withthe M57 and a lessor usage from 2382 Km5.3 to Km0.0 to the Apollo road.

If we do the projectas proposed it will only solve a small part of the problem, which lieson the Road 2382 and not the 2383 problem. It will further increase theproblem on Road 2383, as it will attract even more traffic onto it, stillbeing the shortest route to Olifantsfontein, Ivory Park, Midrand and theConcrete World.

Dot nine Should read"Access to the youth camp situated close to Road 2383".

Dot thirteen We furthernotice that the legal standing and legal extent of the following roadsis still outstanding:

The proposed road 2382between roads K220 and K54, including the Sterkfontein right-of-way.

Road 2383.
All the service roadsand right-of-ways that are served from the roads 2382 and 2383.

Dot Sixteen The wayI understood the lady who represented SEF is that the planning of the proposedroad 2382 should take cognisance of the findings of the overall planninginitiatives regarding national and provincial roads in the wider area.In my mind this is absolutely relevant.Our urgent requestwould thus be to immediately solve the dust and mud problem by whatevermeans and then to consider the upgrading of Road 2383 as an equallyhigh priority with Road 2382 and not allow the two to be done separatelyfrom each other.

Yours sincerely.

Nick & Daleen Oosthuizen

Portion 66, DoornkloofFarm 391JR

082 558 5242

nick@inframid.co.za

Copies to: Mr DV LarsenSecretary Doornkloof Owners' Association

Mr J Boot Counsellor

RETURNTO INDEX PAGE