New bridge offers hope of congestion solution

ALAN PEAT
AFTER A wait of 20 years the R100-million to build the Congella bridge in Durban has finally been approved in a joint project between the National Ports Authority (NPA) and the eThekwini (Durban) municipality. This was confirmed to FTW by Logan Moodley, deputy head of strategic transport planning in the eThekwini Transport Authority, who said that they hoped to go for tender for the contract in July. “After a long process the record of decision has been secured and land issues are being addressed currently,” he said. “These improvements will greatly improve accessibility into the area and relieve congestion on Bayhead Road and South Coast Road.” The bridge will extend Bayhead Road – which serves the Durban Container Terminal (DCT) where it intersects with South Coast Road with a new bridge spanning the railway lines and Southern Freeway and link with Sydney Road which is the major north-south thoroughfare. “We can’t wait for it,” said Kevin Martin, MD of Freightliner and vice-chairman of the Durban harbour carriers’ section of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff) – who added that it would bypass a present area of serious congestion that has hindered national and local road carriers of containers over the years. “At the moment, road hauliers have to use the old South Coast Road to access Bayhead Road,” he said, “and this is an old, twisty, two-lane each way road where an accident or breakdown totally blocks the whole road.” Paul Rayner, MD of DTB Cartage, and former chairman of the harbour carriers, agreed. “It will get traffic away from the South Coast Road and Maydon Road, and access Sydney Road – which connects with the east-west and north-south network of ring roads,” he said. He reckons it will be “a distinct plus”, but calls on the authorities to give attention to a second new route that has also been on the drawing board for years, and has also been a long-held desire for road transporters. This, he told FTW, would directly join the Langeberg Road (the final stretch into the DCT) and the other east-west thoroughfare of Edwin Swales Drive – which in turn connects with the north-south N2 highway, and the main Durban-Gauteng freeway, the N3. Moodley was not available for comment on this other project before FTW went to print.