-Council seeks legal advice
Mahalapye District Council has sought legal advice over its failed defective bus rank which has been under reconstruction.
Construction of the bus rank started in May 2021 and since then it has never been fully utilised as it continued to experience defects.
This week Mahalapye District Council Chairman Banthasetse Merementsi revealed that the rehabilitation of bus rank is complete with defects. He said the Contractor was instructed to rectify defects by end of September 2023, but he has since objected.
He told a full council meeting that legal advice has been sought from Serowe District Council attorney on the 04th October 2023.
“The attorney is working on the issue and has advised against Council doing any activity at the bus rank. We note though that the area continues to be an eyesore and we will do what it takes to get the situation to normality,” Merementsi revealed.
It has since been revealed that the damage at the Mahalapye bus rank was caused by the Council’s failure to conduct Geo-Technical Survey at the area. This was associated with the problem of insufficient funds to outsource technical expertise on the project in so far as the Geo-Technical Survey is concerned.
Last year the Council undertook to do the survey which will guide it on what to do with the soil to cater for the heavy loads which are normally carried by the buses that use the bus rank.
Mahalapye Sub District Council Principal Roads Engineer who is also the Project Engineer Juluka Zambezi said what transpired is that the bus rank was constructed on the existing platform. He said they did engineering survey
which was visual.
“Initially we had three bus bays. Two were okay and the third had two sections that were affected. We did excavation of the area until we were satisfied and then filled the area with boulders. Initially we wanted to address the issue of flooding at the bus rank.
“So at the time the issue of structural failure was not pronounced in the previous bus rank which guided us that there wouldn’t be need to undertake an intensified Geo-Tech. We were going to use the existing platform as the subgrade,” Zambezi said.
He said because of this and lack of financial resources, they could not do the Geo-Technical Survey.
The project which was done internally started in May 14th 2021 as part of Mahalapye Infrastructure Development that has been funded at P57 million. The entire infrastructure development which also covers Shoshong Village, was expected to be completed on the 15th of this month while the last contractor was expected to finish by end of March this year.
The bus rank was funded at P10 million while infrastructure in Shoshong among them a bridge and internal roads have been funded at the tune of P47 million.
Construction of the bus rank started in May 2021 and since then it has never been fully utilised as it continued to experience defects.
This week Mahalapye District Council Chairman Banthasetse Merementsi revealed that the rehabilitation of bus rank is complete with defects. He said the Contractor was instructed to rectify defects by end of September 2023, but he has since objected.
He told a full council meeting that legal advice has been sought from Serowe District Council attorney on the 04th October 2023.
“The attorney is working on the issue and has advised against Council doing any activity at the bus rank. We note though that the area continues to be an eyesore and we will do what it takes to get the situation to normality,” Merementsi revealed.
It has since been revealed that the damage at the Mahalapye bus rank was caused by the Council’s failure to conduct Geo-Technical Survey at the area. This was associated with the problem of insufficient funds to outsource technical expertise on the project in so far as the Geo-Technical Survey is concerned.
Last year the Council undertook to do the survey which will guide it on what to do with the soil to cater for the heavy loads which are normally carried by the buses that use the bus rank.
Mahalapye Sub District Council Principal Roads Engineer who is also the Project Engineer Juluka Zambezi said what transpired is that the bus rank was constructed on the existing platform. He said they did engineering survey
which was visual.
“Initially we had three bus bays. Two were okay and the third had two sections that were affected. We did excavation of the area until we were satisfied and then filled the area with boulders. Initially we wanted to address the issue of flooding at the bus rank.
“So at the time the issue of structural failure was not pronounced in the previous bus rank which guided us that there wouldn’t be need to undertake an intensified Geo-Tech. We were going to use the existing platform as the subgrade,” Zambezi said.
He said because of this and lack of financial resources, they could not do the Geo-Technical Survey.
The project which was done internally started in May 14th 2021 as part of Mahalapye Infrastructure Development that has been funded at P57 million. The entire infrastructure development which also covers Shoshong Village, was expected to be completed on the 15th of this month while the last contractor was expected to finish by end of March this year.
The bus rank was funded at P10 million while infrastructure in Shoshong among them a bridge and internal roads have been funded at the tune of P47 million.
