The City of Joburg power utility says it has restored electricity to most residents affected by last week’s building fire caused by theft of underground cables under the M1 bridge. File Picture: Timothy Bernard Independent Newspapers
City Power, Joburg’s power utility, says it has restored power to most residents affected by last week’s building fire caused by the theft of underground cables under the M1 bridge.
On Wednesday, City Power said after having laid several inter-connector cables between the Fort and Braamfontein substations, and successfully completing the tests, power was restored to Empire Road, Yale Road, Service Road, Napier Street, Wabort Road, John Orr Technical, and Workman’s Rehab Centre.
The power utility urged residents of the remaining parts of the city to remain patient as it was dealing with the outages.
“The residents of the remaining areas must bear with the team as more work is still under way, parallel to the M1 bridge repairs, which are expected to be a bit longer to complete. We are hoping to restore more suburbs, including the rest of Braamfontein today (Wednesday), if all goes according to plan,” said Isaac Mangena, City Power spokesperson.
It was reported that the vandalism and theft triggered widespread outages in Braamfontein, Newtown, Parktown, the Johannesburg CBD, and surrounding areas.
Earlier this week, power supply was restored to buildings such as Braampark, Liberty Life, Thuso House, and the Metro Centre.
On Wednesday, the City of Johannesburg said it would need at least R30 million to repair last Wednesday’s fire damage.
At a media briefing, Joburg city manager, Floyd Brink, indicated that the 50-year-old bridge remained strong in spite of its age.
“This particular bridge was constructed around 1971 or 1972. So despite the fire damage, recent assessment was conducted around 2018/2019 financial year and the bridge declared to be in a good condition and safe for use,” he said.
Brink added that City Power was hard at work ensuring that power was restored as quickly as possible.
“City Power is employing two approaches to the situation. One is installing new inter-connector cables to the affected substations and replacing damaged cables. The Fordsburg substation remains operational as we speak, while the Braamfontein substation remains off-line pending repairs...
“The JRA has conducted research on the damage caused by the fire to the bridge and in spite of the damage, (it) remains in good condition. Parallel to this, we also have insurance assessment which has been completed with insurers and communication efforts are being co-ordinated with various communication teams,” Brink said.
The Star
siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za