R1bn ring road project to reduce crashes and lessen damage to town roads

Contractor’s cash flow holds up completion

The South African National Road Agency (Sanral) is in the midst of completing a R1bn road construction project to ease pressure on the heavily congested infamous N1 route in key towns in Limpopo. Sanral is constructing ring roads around Polokwane and Musina which are a series of interconnected roads that circle a city or a town to avoid traffic and congestion of the towns. Musina will receive an 8km carriageway road that will function as a highway with conlegal trolled access to the N1, and Polokwane will receive an upgrade to its incomplete ring road. Project manager at Sanral Alex van Niekerk said safety was one of the main reasons the ring roads were under construction.

“There is a big safety objective in building these roads. It is also focused on reducing accidents and making the N1 more safe,” Van Niekerk said. He said ring roads allowed vehicles to travel faster but more safely and avoid the dangers of pedestrians and stray animals that cause accidents in rural areas. However, Van Niekerk warned that the roads would not be helpful at some of the key points where crashes have recently occurred such as the Kranskop and Mookgophong route where 27 people recently died.

He said there were plans by Sanral to make these areas more safe in the future. “The problem with those areas is the excessive speeding that causes serious accidents.” Van Niekerk said the main aim of the new roads was to prevent further damage to the towns that heavy vehicles cause. He said Musina was a key town in the area because it was near the border to Zimbabwe, where thousands of vehicles pass by every day. “The impact of the traffic is negative for the towns. It is not necessary for the traffic to go into towns,” he said.

He said there has been some delays in the deadlines of the project because of issues with the contractor’s finances. Van Niekerk said the contractor had cash-flow problems that impacted on the timeline for the completion of the projects.