Funding talks begin on planned Gauteng-Durban truck highway

Details of the first few phases
of the dedicated truck highway
– eventually planned to link
the country’s main production
hub of Gauteng/Free State and
its major port of Durban – have
been released to FTW by Paul
Sessions, transport economist
in the eThekwini Municipality
transport planning department.
It’s long-term planning, he
noted, with the initial effort
being an examination of
alternative routes to connect
the port (and the new dig-out
port) with the N2 highway.
“So far,” said Sessions,
“we’ve got government
funding for the environmental
impact study early next year,
and we are also going ahead
with the planning – working
out the route and actual costing
of the first phases of the
dedicated truck highway.”
And it’s going to be a large
highway, he added, with three
lanes in each direction.
The first hard task is to
persuade Transnet – the
main beneficiaries of an
efficient truck highway – to
come up with “a good part”
of the funding. “But,” said
Sessions, “we are also talking
to the SA National Roads
Agency Limited (Sanral) and
the government about their
possible involvement.”
According to Graham
Muller of Muller & Associates,
the lead consulting firm
that drew up the back-ofport
(BOP) plan for the
municipality, the project is
likely to cost billions of rand.
That would have to cover
the dedicated truck route
west from the port to the N2
highway; then the other truck
route from the N2 to join the
N3 at Cato Ridge; as well as
a road linking the proposed
dig-out port at the site of the
old international airport to the
existing harbour.
The suggestions are that the
truck route from the port to the
N2 may be funded by the city,
according to eThekwini deputy
city manager Musa Cele,
quoted by business intelligence
unit, INet Bridge.
He agreed with what
Sessions told FTW, and said
that the BOP project was likely
to be funded from a “mixture”
of sources that may or may not
include a toll road, although
funds raised from a toll road
were likely be insufficient to
fund the entire project.
The city, he added, would
negotiate with Sanral to pay
for at least part of the project,
pointing at the road from the
N2 to the N3 at Cato Ridge.
The municipality will also
need to obtain funding from
national government if it is to
proceed with its BOP project
to support expansion around
the Port of Durban – where
eThekwini must cater for an
expected increase in container
traffic to 25 million containers
a year from 3.6 million at
present.
It’s all still at the prefeasibility
stage. But, Sessions
told FTW: “We’re looking at
the route being operational by
about the end of the decade
(2020).”