Cape Town: The City is making efforts to restore roads, pavements and driveways across Cape Town. The officials are gaining traction as the City verified and attended over 5000 of approximately 7000 long-standing trench reinstatement cases. While taking decisive steps to strengthen contractor performance. It is improving visibility of the backlog and ensuring that work is carried out more efficiently across the metro.
Reportedly, the reinstatements are required after essential underground water and sanitation repairs, where trenches must be opened to access pipelines before road surfaces, pavements and driveways can be restored. Also, a targeted plan is under way to address reinstatements through two complementary initiatives:
- The Breakaway Project focusing on clearing the historical backlog
- The other by using internal and external staff to supplement day-to-day operations
Following the industry-wide builder’s break over the festive season, contractors have returned to full operational capacity actioning trench reinstatements.
The City of Cape Town has taken firm steps to improve delivery performance. It is also strengthening contractor performance and ensuring that work is delivered to the required standards and within agreed timeframes.
Furthermore, the Breakaway Project continues to focus on tackling approximately 7000 long-standing reinstatement notifications that fall outside the Service Level Agreement (SLA) timeframe, particularly in areas with the highest backlogs. To date, 75% (5225) of the ring-fenced reinstatement notifications have been verified and measured on site to confirm whether reinstatement work is required.
This verification process includes site inspections, measurements and record checks, by providing the City of Cape Town with the clearest picture yet of the true extent of the historical backlog. Verification and measurement of the remaining reinstatements is expected to be completed by April 2026.
Work packages under the Breakaway Project continues to progress, as the Work Packages One and Two are complete now. A sixth work package is scheduled to be issued in March 2026 and will cover areas including Malibu, Sarepta, Kuils River, Blue Downs, Belhar, Blackheath, Eerste River, Somerset West, Gordon’s Bay, Khayelitsha and Delft.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Water and Sanitation – Councillor Zahid Badroodien said that the verification process has been a critical step in ensuring that resources are directed to genuine outstanding reinstatements. It allows teams to work more efficiently while improving oversight and accountability.
At the same time, they are strengthening contractor performance to ensure that work is completed to standard and within the required timeframes. These combined efforts are helping them to steadily work through the backlog while improving systems to prevent new backlogs from forming. Badroodien thanked the residents for their patience during this time as teams continue restoring roads, pavements and driveways safely and efficiently across Cape Town.