JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng — The City of Johannesburg is firmly defending the R192-million price tag associated with the ongoing Lillian Ngoyi Street rehabilitation, as the project faces its third missed deadline. Three years after a massive underground explosion devastated the central business district’s transit artery, the 1.8-kilometer corridor rebuild remains incomplete, prompting intense public scrutiny over expenditures and timelines.
With the original completion date having passed last month, the new target for finalizing phase two of the project is now set for the end of October. Having already seen two different contractors assigned to the job, questions have mounted regarding the allocation of the R192-million budget and the prolonged duration of the work.
Addressing these concerns, a City of Johannesburg spokesperson explained that the budget reflects necessary variations due to the aged state of the underground utilities. “Most of the things that we have put underneath, we couldn’t predict that the infrastructure is tired,” the spokesperson stated. Crews were forced to dig deeper than anticipated to install new cables and lay hard rock surfaces to support the road, replacing the original concrete design because certain municipal services were entirely inaccessible.
“We have redesigned the bottom part, and the last 1.8 kilometers actually is the one that stretched us, but we’re still within the cost that we have announced,” the spokesperson added.
The cost is only one facet of the project’s troubled history. According to the Johannesburg Road Agency’s own figures, physical progress sat at 70% in March and rose to just 72% over the subsequent five months. Despite these metrics, a Johannesburg Road Agency spokesperson expressed confidence in meeting the revised deadline, characterizing the remaining work as largely superficial.
“A lot of work has been done. The road is compacted. It’s just the side finisher and other things like piping and all sorts of things. So it’s the cosmetics, basically, and then up there that’s where they still need to put a lot of paving,” the spokesperson noted, acknowledging that while some time was lost, the revised schedule is achievable.
A primary driver of the delay has been the city’s deliberate decision to expand the project’s scope. Rather than merely repairing the immediate blast site, officials opted to restore the entire 1.8-kilometer corridor. This ambitious approach required complex work on underground tunnels and the comprehensive relocation of municipal services.
“We have new tunnels that we have designed to accommodate the infrastructure so that there’s no recurring explosions and stuff like that,” a city spokesperson explained. They emphasized that the old tunnels were highly unsafe and that encountering unexpected concrete structures required the engineering team to descope and redesign initial plans. The upgraded tunnels will also allow municipal entities to perform future maintenance efficiently “without having to find their way in the dark.”
While the critical infrastructure work continues underground, the disruption is being acutely felt above ground. Local businesses have been forced to operate alongside heavy construction, transport routes have been significantly altered, and residents have had to navigate an unfinished roadscape for months.
For pedestrians, traversing the construction zone has become a daily hazard. One local commuter expressed deep frustration over the uneven terrain, noting they are now forced to wear sandals (“taggies”) to avoid ruining their footwear. “It’s irritating… the ties are pulling when I’m jumping next to the ropes,” the resident shared, highlighting the difficult and unsafe conditions for foot traffic.
As the city grants itself another seven weeks to bring the Lillian Ngoyi Street rehabilitation to completion, officials maintain that the extensive underground redesign is a necessary investment to prevent future disasters and ensure long-term structural integrity for the city’s transit artery.
