Rapid urbanisation and the effect it’s having on Gauteng could be effectively addressed through a major warehouse development south of Johannesburg, according to the developers, NT55 Investments.Dubbed “Distribution Junction”, this “Port of Gauteng” is situated on a f lat piece of land with crucial multi-modal infrastructure in close prox im it y.According to NT55 director Francois Nortje, the best warehousing sites across the world have a railway line, f lat land and a highway – crucial aspects that are all present where Distribution Junction sits on the N3 between Vosloorus and an area called Vredebos.In a document sent to various media houses, key attributes listed include “the shape and length of the land that allows for an extremely efficient mega rail terminal” which, apart from sitting between a railway line and a highway, is connected by a major arterial road – Barry Marais thoroughfare.This, Nortje added, “creates an efficient intermodal swop”.Made up of several erven, the property of at least 140 hectares, provides “107 hectares abutting the railway line, 2.2 kilometres of straight-on rail frontage, shovel-ready land that will unlock logistical efficiencies, and Nederveen Road which was recently upgraded to the highest provincial specifications”.If the development’s envisioned Railways Park comes to pass, “it promises to turn around a full block train within an hour, significantly saving on costs by reducing railway stock”. Key to Distribution Junction’s scoped potential, Nortje pointed out, was the “development of two full-length 750-metre spurs at Railway Park that will have the potential of turning 1 680 000 containers a year”.Transnet, however, is involved in a similar supply chain game-changer that has been mooted since the 90s and which is as similar in its transformative scope as it is environmentally different to Distribution Junction. The Tambo Springs Logistics Gateway has been Nortje’s bête noire for years.For the Gateway to happen, Nortje argues, it will cost R2 billion in infrastructural investment. Since it has been in the offing literally since last century, logistics leaders generally agree that there’s no way the Gateway is ever going to happen if not so much as a sod has been turned yet.Nortje says he already has prominent clients eager to tap into Distribution Junction’s lettable area of 1.2 million square metres.“A terminal with this capacity and the ability to turn around a train in one hour gives the government a very real alternative for road transport between Durban and Johannesburg,” he said.
