Gauteng freeway ‘heaven’ will be reality by April

Gauteng has become a massive construction site. Between roadworks on the freeways and the continuation of work on the Gautrain, huge backlogs in traffic on the freeways are costing time, inconvenience and therefore money for motorists and truck drivers. But there is no gain without pain, says the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) chief executive, Nazir Alli. Motorists will have to endure the pain until the 185 kms of freeway are completed in April 2011, he said. The main problems being experienced are sudden lane changes on the freeways, poorly marked roads and lane closures. Some R23 billion is being spent on the freeway upgrade, called the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP). Alli has appealed to motorists to be patient. “Motorists must realise that they are driving through a working factory and they should show courtesy to our workers, who put their lives at risk every day by working on busy freeways,” he said. They should adhere to the advisory speed limits, he said. Alli said eight different consortia consisting of small and mediumsized businesses were involved in the roadworks, which started in 2008. “This has created about 7 000 jobs, as well as skills transfer,” he said. The contractors are contractually on target at this stage. Work had to be suspended during the World Cup, but this was factored into the planning. Alli said that so far there had only been one accident in which a worker was killed by a motorist. An overloaded truck hit an overhead bridge on the R21 interchange causing a concrete beam to fall, which just missed a car. “The rest are mainly minor accidents caused by poor following distance,” he said. Alli said the most significant contribution the investment will make to ordinary citizens is the improvement of their quality of life and family time, as well as less time and inconvenience for businesses and freight truck operators. All the freeways will be tolled by 2011. The estimated cost is 50c per kilometre according to national standards. There will be discounts, but not less than 40c per kilometre, based on usage. Those who qualify for the discount will be public transport operators, hauliers and ordinary motorists who use the freeways frequently. High occupancy vehicle lanes, for vehicles with three or more people are included in the design. The average occupancy on the Ben Schoeman, said Alli, is 1.2 per vehicle There will also be extensive intelligent transport systems in place, with cameras to monitor all the freeways. There will be a 12-minute response to accidents and breakdowns. “We are hoping the Road Traffic Management Committee will come on board. It is a great opportunity for them to start law enforcement, with their own policing force,” he said. Motorists and truckers will be required to register as users to obtain the transponders that are fitted on windscreens. The transponders detect movement whenever the driver passes under gantries situated approximately every 10km along the freeway network. Vehicles belonging to non- Gauteng residents, rental vehicles and those without transponders will be photographed and presented with an account. Non-payment will hence be a traffic offence in terms of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences legislation and it becomes a violation in terms of the act, and the points demerit system will kick in. Licences will also not be renewed if there are outstanding toll fees. The cameras will pick up false registration plates through the automatic number plate recognition system which will be coming into effect. The police will be alerted from the call centre to stop such vehicles. “There will be officers dotted around the networks,” he said. “The freeway project will allow unimpeded growth in Gauteng, while paving the way for major investment into small medium and micro-enterprise as well as black economic empowerment businesses via construction,” said Alli. Another major boost for business people has been the Gautrain route between OR Tambo and Sandton. The route from Johannesburg to Pretoria is expected to be complete next year. About 400 000 passenger trips were undertaken during the first month of operations, with just under half of these passengers using the airport service. Weekends are much busier than weekdays – passengers trips on weekends range from 12 000 to 20 000 per day. There is a pattern of stable commuters emerging between Rhodesfield and Sandton every weekday, according to statistics released by Bombela, which operates the train system.