Minister blames interchange delays on locals
KARINO - Transport minister Fikile
Mbalula has attributed the delays on the Karino Interchange to communities that wanted to be involved in the project.
He said this during his inspection and monitoring visit at the construction site on Friday. The visit was done in partnership with the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) and Trans African Concessions (TRAC).
The aim of the visit was to monitor and inspect the progress on major infrastructure project upgrades along the N4 in Mpumalanga.
“The main delays were caused by communities and people who were seeking to be part of the programme. The project is now progressing, we are on track and it will be completed in November,” he explained. “The interchange forms part of the government’s road infrastructure projects which are delivered through Sanral.
“The project has brought about job creation and empowered the local and surrounding SMMEs with skills development and subcontracting opportunities,” he said. Mbalula added that the interchange will resolve a lot of things such as congestion and backlog. Alex van Niekerk, the chief executive officer of TRAC, said, “The N4 and R514 intersection had become a nightmare, handling high traffic volumes, especially during peak hours. The intersection also became notorious for the severity of its accidents over the years.”
According to Van Niekerk, the upgrading of the Karino intersection to an interchange is deemed a next phase as part of the original Nelspruit Northern Ring Road project completed in 2010.
The interchange is the most important link between Mbombela and KaNyamazane and will provide a direct link from the R514 route to the N4 national road. The R514 also provides access to the KMI Airport.
Van Niekerk added that a total of 54 local subcontractors and over 300 local community members are currently employed on-site. A portion of the expenditure incurred on the project has to be injected back into the affected communities. The initial six per cent targeted labour set at the tender phase has been exceeded to 7,19 per cent, meaning that total expenditure on targeted labour is now over R17 million.