Gautrain’s much publicised tunnel route between Johannesburg’s Park Station and Rosebank will remain closed until a second revised tunnel rectification plan has been submitted and approved. The first rectification plan failed.

“Water flowing into the tunnel remains a problem,” Gautrain’s communications and marketing manager Dr Barbara Jensen said.

“While Bombela, the concession company responsible for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the system for the next 14 years, may be able to manage the excessive quantity of water flowing into the tunnel, and provide train services in the short term, up to the present time, it has not provided any credible assurances that the excessive amounts of water will not cause irreparable harm to the tunnel itself and the environment around it in the long term. Taking risks may lead to liability exposure. The province has asked Bombela to develop a revised tunnel rectification plan to comply with the specification, as instructed by the Dispute Resolution Board. The Gauteng provincial government, the owners of Gautrain, cannot and will not agree to something that is clearly contrary to the long-term interest of the province and the public. The speed at which Bombela develops the revised tunnel rectification plan, and the approval thereof, will determine the date at which the Park Station to Rosebank tunnel section could be opened to the public,” she said.

With very little technical information being released, one must speculate the extent to which Johannesburg’s acid mine water drainage problem is aggravating the situation. South Africa’s geotechnical and hydrological engineers are known to be very competent people and it is unlikely, at the time of their surveys, that they would have miscalculated the ground water flows that now are cause for concern.

Transparency is always the better policy.