Damage to historic bridge case in court

GEORGE NEWS - A court case on damage to the historic Silver River Bridge, located on the Old George Road between George and Wilderness, is underway in the George Magistrate's Court. The next court date is on Wednesday 5 April.

After a police investigation by the Hawks, they opened a case against a 29-year-old male truck driver of a local truck company, who caused damage to the side of the bridge while crossing over in the direction of Wilderness at the beginning of 2022.

The complainant in the case is Heritage Western Cape, because the Silver River Bridge is a provincial heritage site. The case is heard by magistrate Frazer, the prosecutor is Adv MP Heyns and the defense attorney is CJ Smit.

Since word got around about this incident, George Herald has reported on several other incidents of trucks getting stuck on the bridge while transporting goods between George and Wilderness. Some trucks came from as far as Gauteng or the West Coast, and they would get stuck on the bridge at all hours of the night.

"Damage to the Silver River and Kaaimans River bridges has occurred in the past on a number of occasions, before and after the event in question," said the former chairperson of the George Heritage Trust, Henry Paine, an architect who provided the Hawks with factual historical information on the bridge.

Paine said this is clear from all the scrape marks on the sides of the bridges, as well as missing parts. "The road was not designed to carry large vehicles, which is obvious to an observer, but this has not deterred drivers from 'taking a chance' and driving through the route for one reason or another."

Paine said the lack of signs from the George side to warn the drivers of heavy vehicles, has not helped the situation.

"The problem has also been exacerbated by the collapse of railway services designed to carry heavy loads," he said.

Pieces of the parapet have been knocked into the Silver River as a result of a collision.

Background

The Seven Passes Road was designed and built by Thomas Bain in 1883 and remained a gravel road until relatively recently.

The bridges over the Silver River and Kaaimans River were originally timber structures and were replaced with the present concrete structures in 1904 and 1903, respectively, making them approximately 120 years old. In 1981, the Minister of National Education, Gerrit van Niekerk Viljoen, in terms of section 10(1) of the National Monuments Act, No 28 of 1969, declared the road reserve of the Old Road between George and Knysna from Saasveld to the junction with the Wilderness Road, including the Kaaimans and Silver River bridges, to be a national monument.

Later, the Silver River Bridge was protected by the new Heritage Act, titled the National Heritage Resources Act, No 25 of 1999, which re-graded all national monuments as Grade II Heritage Resources or Provincial Heritage Resources.

The declared part of the road comprises 11,2km, starting at the turnoff to Saasveld (Nelson Mandela University) and ending at the junction of the Woodville/Hoekwil Road.

In terms of signs, there is a sign from the Wilderness side of the Old George Road, warning drivers of the mass limit. There are, however, no signs from the George side of the road.