On Wednesday, $19$ July $2023,$ an explosion occurred in the Johannesburg Central Business District $($CBD$),$ creating a tunnel. The official investigation revealed that methane gas was the cause of the Lillian Ngoyi Street $($formerly known as Bree Street$)$ blast. Floyd Brink, the City of Johannesburg City Manager, revealed during a media briefing that the explosion killed one person, injured several others, caused infrastructure damage and disrupted services in the area. Brink added that the investigation ruled out several other suspected causes $$ including that a gas leakage, illegal mining underground or negligence caused the explosion.

Following the explosion, the City of Johannesburg spent close to R$4$ million on $$professional experts, services, the cordoning off of the site, technology that was used and the provision of temporary relief$.$ The city manager said repair work to rehabilitate and reconstruct the area is currently estimated to stand at around R$178$ million and that is based on preliminary work and designs. That amount may increase based on the designs that they will have and as they are moving closer with detailed designs.

Brink further said the City has learnt several lessons following the explosion with plans coming to avoid future reoccurrence.

The Graduate Attribute $4($Investigations$,$ experiments and data analysis Learning outcome$)$ and Graduate Attribute $6($Professional and technical communication Learning outcome$)$ rubrics for Engineering Management will be used to assess your work, so be sure to pay careful attention to the c$1$riteria outlined in the rubric.