Ben Schoeman toll will benefit freight

Anna Cox THE PROPOSED new toll express way on the Ben Schoeman will benefit the flow of freight traffic between Johannesburg and Pretoria resulting in millions of rands of savings in both time and fuel, said chief executive of the South African National Roads agency, Nazir Alli. The toll express way provides the motorist with a choice between an untolled and a tolled facility side by side. When motorists approach the toll express way and find the untolled section congested, they can make the decision to travel in the less-congested tolled expressway. This direct charging system means that those who do not use the roads, pay nothing towards them. The toll express involves widening the road to four lanes in both directions and converting two of the lanes into tolled express lanes and leaving two lanes in both directions untolled. There are currently traffic volumes of around 140 000 cars every day. "This is the current figure and it is increasing every month. Add to this the necessity to develop and sustain our infrastructure to serve our economic needs both now and in the future, and it becomes clear that we must improve the transport infrastructure between Johannesburg and Pretoria," he added. The road is to be constructed by the Gauteng SuperHighways Consortium (GSC) consortium. All interchanges will be studied and upgraded where necessary and electronic tolling will be used to minimise delays at the toll booths.