Generally the roads in Plett are in reasonable condition and there is a plan in place for resurfacing, although a very low budget has been allowed for this purpose. In an ideal world, roads should be resurfaced while they are still in reasonable condition before they deteriorate too much. Often planning is poor because correct engineering analysis is not being done.
It is planned to apply bitumen overlays to the following roads during the 2021/2022 financial year:
Lesley, Dorothea, Zenon, Olivia, Plato, Ray, Phitidis, Cupid, Protea Place, Bowtie East and West, Cutty Sark, Flying Cloud, Athena, Park Lane, Duminy, Longships, Skerry Vore, Agnes, Entaa and Maplin.
Most towns have north / south, and east / west roads that are fall under provincial management to cater for throughway traffic, and Plett is no different.
The following roads in Plett fall under provincial management:
- Lower end section of Beacon Way to the N2 intersection
- Marine Drive down to the bottom circle at the Beacon Isle shopping centre
- Piesang Valley Road from N2 to the circle at Longships Drive
- Robberg Road all the way until it joins the N2 in Harkerville
When N2 is closed, all traffic is diverted via the Airport Road. However, Odlands is too steep for overloaded vehicles and often heavy trucks break down on the steep gradient. Added to this is then having to negotiate a right turn at the Dolphin Circle to travel down Main Street. The brick paving on this road is also problematic as the architect who was in charge of designing this road had pavement type bricks laid instead of interlocking bricks. The result is the bricks are starting to pop as they were not designed for heavily loaded vehicles.
As a matter of interest the gravel road that connects the N2 to Wittedrift is also a provincial road. This road is often in bad condition due to the many heavy timber trucks that frequently traverse it.
The intersection at N2/Beacon Way – various engineering plans have been considered over the years but so far no final decision has yet been made.
The thorny issue of the intersection with Robberg Road and Piesang Valley Road remains unresolved. There’s insufficient space to construct a circle here and while various plans have been proposed no decision has yet been taken.
Main Street street lights: The malfunctioning street lights in Main Street have been a problem since their installation in 2009. The municipality claims it doesn’t have the budget or the means to repair them with different reasons for this being given over the years: cable fault, no globes, no cherry picker, etc. Every season Plett looks derelict with half the lights not working, and it is a safety issue for the Rage kids walking in the dark at night. This will continue to be taken up with the municipality.