Road closure
- Over the years there have been many requests from residents for roads to be closed in order to minimize the exits and entrances to our suburb.
- The closure/partial closure of roads in other suburbs has been very effective in enabling the security companies, together with residents’ involvement, to reduce crime dramatically.
- Restricted access minimizes vehicles or undesirable characters entering the area, committing organised, planned crime activities and exiting without detection.
- Road closures in other areas has dramatically increased the value of these the enclosed area.
There are 10 entrances to our suburb. The current proposals suggest access control at 5 or 6 points of entry and complete closure at the other 4 points of entry. There are 8 streets with cul-de-sacs or partially restricted access. There are many students and staff from UNISA passing through the area, there are patients visiting the hospital, visitors to the Parks Board and there are workers entering and leaving the suburb daily. We need to respect these activities and the needs of the public to pass through the area.
This project is complicated and costly, there are certain procedures which have to be followed to achieve compliance from the city council and to get support from the residents.
The Proposal
The outline of the steps to this project, are as follows:
- A traffic impact study has to be carried out by the municipality.
This is a costly, once-off, event. - We need to have residents’ support in this regard, to agree to such closure and to contribute financially if possible.
- The necessary construction of exit points and suitable barriers using technology and guards has to be planned and carried out.
- There is an on-going monthly contribution required to maintain the control and reaction procedures.
Current Progress
There are 2 paths to follow, either individual roads or smaller areas can be secured off (the necessary applications have to be submitted to council) or, the entire proposal for the area has to be considered. The difficulty for single road closures is the cost is very high for that group of residents due to the fact that the cost of the traffic impact study remains high irrespective of the area that is affected. This project can only succeed if the traffic engineer at the city council confirms that what we are proposing is viable and could be achieved.
First Steps
- meet with the traffic engineer for a preliminary hearing of the proposal
- assess the amount of support from residents to implement the proposal
Request
Any resident who has contacts in the city council, or could assist us with these first 2 steps, collecting info from residents, knowledge of the procedures, or ability to draw up our application in the required manner.