Contrary to what FTW Online heard yesterday, the abnormal load bypass in Durban for project cargo travelling by road remains closed – but only until April 5.
Yesterday FTW was told that the bypass had been successfully forced open through high-level intervention.
But in the latest development confirmation was received from an operations manager dealing with super loads that Newlyn Group, the property developers in possession of a lease to Transnet land through which the bypass runs, that “the PX Terminal Bypass Route is currently closed to the transportation of all abnormal loads and will be until April”.
In the communique received, Newlyn added that the bypass which had been used since the 1960s to transport engineering equipment among other things to various refineries in the Durban area, would be available for such project cargo operations from April 5.
Previously, the route clearing manager who shared his information with Freight & Trade Weekly, spoke of a verbal undertaking given to the company for which he works.
This is due to a crucial reactor they’re bringing in from Italy for the Sapref refinery in Prospecton.
But haggling over the essential access way last week seemed to provoke the ire of Newlyn, leading it to declare via email that they had no obligation to keep the bypass open and as a result had decided to close it off, with potentially massive implications for South Africa’s most important port.
The company started building a palisade fence across the bypass, causing a company transporting a hydrochloric acid tank meant for Mondi to go through a cumbersome de- and re-rigging process as it battled to move the item underneath the M4 where it crosses South Coast Road.
However, following a high-level meeting on Tuesday involving several representatives from the Department of Transport in KwaZulu-Natal, Transnet and the municipality of eThekwini, Newlyn finally buckled under pressure to keep the bypass open.
But although the route clearers can rest assured – for the time being – that the 235-ton reactor will manage to make its way around the bridge, it remains unclear whether the bypass will remain permanently open.
However, at least one source said this was in the pipeline as without the bypass abnormal loads could not be moved in and out of port, meaning they would have to go to the ports of Richards Bay or Ngqura.
