By Nangamso Mabindla
17 March 2005

FLEET Street, one of East London's busiest thoroughfares linking the Quigney and the West Bank to the central business district, is to be upgraded.

The Buffalo City Municipality has appointed FST Consulting, the consulting engineers, to investigate concerns that the road is deteriorating. A new road surface will need to be durable enough to handle the heavy flow of traffic and the heavy vehicles that use the road.

Darby Gounden, the City's communications manager, said the investigations would cost the municipality R500 000. "The municipality has for some time been concerned about the deteriorating ride quality of Fleet Street. That is why we appointed FST Consulting to investigate if this is true."

As part of its investigations, FST Consulting will conduct a structural analysis of the road layers, the possible relocation of all municipal services on the street and the reconfiguration of the traffic lanes. The fire department is in Fleet Street.

"In addition, field work such as the drilling of cores and excavation of small trial holes along the street will also take place," Gounden said, adding that there were also plans for above and below ground services surveys, as well as investigations into existing traffic counts.

The fieldwork was expected to start by the end of March. "We request users of Fleet Street to exercise caution during this period, particularly during the trial hole excavation phase," Gounden said.