The running battle over Swartkops’ Smartie Bridge took another twist at the weekend when a taxi flattened one of the poles erected to support a long-awaited height restriction barrier.
The historic bridge has been at the centre of the drama around the continued passage of trucks, each in excess of 30 tonnes, despite its five-tonne weight restriction, resulting in concerns that this could cause a major collapse and loss of life.
The bridge drama has, in turn, been one of the focal points about damage being caused by the manganese industry in Nelson Mandela Bay as most of the culprit trucks are ore haulers shuttling between the Swartkops power station, Markman and the Port of Ngqura.
Speaking at the site on Monday, Aloes resident and Ward 16 committee member Francis Kaki pointed out where the taxi crossed the bridge on Sunday morning.
He said it was travelling south to north from Swartkops Village and rammed into the newly built concrete island dividing the road as it exited.
“It knocked the concrete bollard out the ground and carried on going until it smashed the pole as well.
“I was in the queue of cars waiting to cross into Swartkops and I got there just after the accident happened.”
The felled pole was one of three erected across the road on the north side of the bridge, with the same design duplicated on the south side.
The aim is that they will support the two all-important height restriction barriers.
But Kaki said that was the problem.
“If a taxi does this to one of the poles, can you imagine what damage a truck will cause?
“We do not understand why they have eventually got to do this very important job, but now instead of using steel or concrete they use wood.
“They will keep on needing to repair it, which will in the end cost them more, and every time it is broken like now the barriers will be down and the problem of heavy trucks crossing will continue.”
Officially the Wylde Bridge, built in 1879, the steel structure spans the Swartkops Estuary, linking Grahamstown Road and the R102.
It was affectionately renamed the Smartie Bridge because of the colourful paint job it received in 2016.
The height barriers were removed at that point to allow the painting to be done and since then they have not been reinstalled because they were incorrectly positioned and trucks were getting stuck after realising too late that they could not get through.
“We just want them please to use the right materials otherwise it is going to be pointless and we will still have this very serious problem,” Kaki said.
“The manganese trucks especially drive like they own this structure and they do not respect the community.
“We are worried that their weight may cause the bridge to collapse at any time.”
Kaki and fellow Aloes resident Eileen Leander are part of a bridge-monitoring group started by Francis Jeffrey, 69, who is from Swartkops village, together with Linda Meades.
They have highlighted their concern about the structural integrity of the bridge and the safety of commuters, especially the hundreds of children who cross each day.
Complementing the new design to keep the trucks away, early signposting on Grahamstown Road and the R102 has already been installed, warning of the five-tonne weight restriction and giving trucks plenty of time to peel off onto Dibanisa Road.
However, despite this and the efforts of the group to flag down transgressors, the trucks continue to stream across the Smartie Bridge.
Leander said she estimated about 25 trucks a day approached the bridge and about 20 of them, mostly manganese haulers, ignored her calls for them to turn around.
There was no sign of the contractor appointed by the metro to work on the bridge when The Herald visited the site on Monday.
Questions were put to the metro and receipt was confirmed but no response had been received by the time of publication.
The Herald
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