A construction company behind the installation of two street lights in the middle of a demarcated parking space in the Roodepoort CBD says the gaffe was due to a drawing mistake.
KPA Civils, the company behind the embarrassing installations that caused a stir on social media when pictures of the awkwardly-placed street light poles were shared, said they have been removed until the pedestrian sidewalks are extended.
Construction manager of KPA Civils Kennedy Kaneka said their projects include extending sidewalks for pedestrian safety, installing street lights and road surfacing.
“So the reason there were street lights is due to a drawing mistake by one of our colleagues. He couldn’t get the co-ordinates accurately. We need to put in sidewalk curbs first before street lights,” said Kaneka.
“We were given five streets to work on and the street where we had the street lights was not part of the project. This slipped the mind of my team doing the electrical work.
“They didn’t look at it in a proper way. We all agreed this street mustn’t be worked on until the curbs for the sidewalk are in so that the lights are not an obstruction to people. The poles are not there now ... It was a mistake and we took them off the site.”
Business owners in the area said two street lights were installed in the parking area of Station Street last week and there were concerns that they were awkwardly placed and were causing an obstruction to motorists and pedestrians.
When Sowetan visited the area on Monday, the street lights had been removed.
Adriaan Wessels, the senior manager of a fast-food fried chicken restaurant in the area, said he lost many customers last week who couldn't find parking spaces.
“I don’t know why they put the street lights here on the road. When the people came here to install the street lights I asked them why they are doing this,” he said.
“A lot of people struggled to find parking. I couldn’t even sell properly because most of my customers couldn’t find parking. I usually get 18,000 customers a day but I had 2,000 less last week.”
Khuram Shahzad, owner of Fani Cellular, said he was shocked when he saw the street lights being installed.
“How can they put them on the right? What if cars bump into each other and an accident happens. We were all asking questions as to why they put the lights here on the parking space,” said Shahzad.
SowetanLIVE
Street lights in the middle of parking area 'a result of drawing mistake'
Image: ANTONIO MUCHAVE
A construction company behind the installation of two street lights in the middle of a demarcated parking space in the Roodepoort CBD says the gaffe was due to a drawing mistake.
KPA Civils, the company behind the embarrassing installations that caused a stir on social media when pictures of the awkwardly-placed street light poles were shared, said they have been removed until the pedestrian sidewalks are extended.
Construction manager of KPA Civils Kennedy Kaneka said their projects include extending sidewalks for pedestrian safety, installing street lights and road surfacing.
“So the reason there were street lights is due to a drawing mistake by one of our colleagues. He couldn’t get the co-ordinates accurately. We need to put in sidewalk curbs first before street lights,” said Kaneka.
“We were given five streets to work on and the street where we had the street lights was not part of the project. This slipped the mind of my team doing the electrical work.
“They didn’t look at it in a proper way. We all agreed this street mustn’t be worked on until the curbs for the sidewalk are in so that the lights are not an obstruction to people. The poles are not there now ... It was a mistake and we took them off the site.”
Business owners in the area said two street lights were installed in the parking area of Station Street last week and there were concerns that they were awkwardly placed and were causing an obstruction to motorists and pedestrians.
When Sowetan visited the area on Monday, the street lights had been removed.
Adriaan Wessels, the senior manager of a fast-food fried chicken restaurant in the area, said he lost many customers last week who couldn't find parking spaces.
“I don’t know why they put the street lights here on the road. When the people came here to install the street lights I asked them why they are doing this,” he said.
“A lot of people struggled to find parking. I couldn’t even sell properly because most of my customers couldn’t find parking. I usually get 18,000 customers a day but I had 2,000 less last week.”
Khuram Shahzad, owner of Fani Cellular, said he was shocked when he saw the street lights being installed.
“How can they put them on the right? What if cars bump into each other and an accident happens. We were all asking questions as to why they put the lights here on the parking space,” said Shahzad.
SowetanLIVE
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