South African authorities say that 178 million South African Rand ($9.5 million) will be needed to repair 400 metres of Lilian Ngoyi Street in Johannesburg, which was damaged during an explosion on July 19.
Johannesburg City manager Floyd Brink said an investigation into the cause of the blast has established that methane gas triggered the explosion.
“Methane is lighter than air, so it will go up. It travelled up all along the service tunnel from an unknown source to the crest of the tunnel near the Von Brandis Street,” Brink said at a press conference in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
“There were always questions around why did we not see any fire…if you look at the low explosive level, there’s a threshold of between 5% and 15%. If it’s between 5% and 15% it will be an explosion, anything above 15% will then cause a fire,” he added.
Repair costs could increase
The July 19 explosion, which left one person dead and several others injured, damaged a significant section of Lilian Ngoyi Street.
Brink said it would cost approximately 178 million South African Rand ($9.5 million) to repair the 400-metre stretch, but the “amount may increase based on the (road) designs that we will have.”
He further said the South African government had spent 4 million South African Rand ($213,825) in rescue operations and setting up temporary relief centres.
