The rehabilitation of Lillian Ngoyi Street, formerly known as Bree Street at the Joburg CBD, has officially commenced and is expected to be completed on 15 December 2024.
The announcement was made by City of Joburg’s officials during a media briefing in Braamfontein.
The rehabilitation of the site comes six months after a part of the street exploded in what is believed to have been caused by a methane gas leak claiming one life and leaving 48 other people injured.
“As of today (Thursday) we have a contractor on site who has been appointed to conduct the following, the excavation and removal of rubble and damaged infrastructure. The demolition and removal of the service tunnels. The installation of modern health and safety structures to mitigate the risks of similar incidents in the future,’’ explained the Metro’s Mayor, Kabelo Gwamanda.
He also appealed for patience from residents, to allow smooth operations of the project.
This as the site had been closed off from the public, due to safety and vandalism concerns.
‘’From today, the people of Lillian Ngoyi Street and surrounding areas will begin to see the active movement of heavy-duty machinery and equipment.
We urge them to display a maximum level of participation to protect the development from disruption and any form of criminality,’’ explained Gwamanda.
The mayor also highlighted that they were compelled to finance the project with funds to the tune of R196 million, while awaiting Treasury’s approval to declare a local state of disaster.
Despite this, the city didn’t rule out possibilities of expanding their current set budget.
“It’s not a definite budget that we can say 12 months’ from now, there would not be additional discoveries that would have been identified by the experts that are running a parallel process with the construction company who will then be advising the city as we continuously explore every inch of the city to ensure we prevent further disasters. For us to be rigid on a specific amount without considering the expansion of the project into other areas, is something we have been cognizant of,’’ emphasised Gwamanda.
The mayor assured residents that they would monitor the progress of the project to ensure that it does not overlap the scheduled time limit.
