Temperatures rise over Durban’s only abnormal cargo bypass shut-off

A long-standing matter of national importance that involves the movement of abnormal cargo in and out of the Port of Durban through an area called the PX Shed threatened to come to a head last week when the bypass was blocked off by the company that has the lease to the land.
Despite earlier indications by property developers Newlyn Group that the bypass would foreseeably remain open for the transportation of abnormally large freight through the port, the company has decided to build a palisade fence across the bypass route’s access way. This was confirmed by an anonymous source specialising in heavy loads
who is currently in the process of fine-tuning the movement of a hydrochloric acid tank destined for paper and packaging enterprise, Mondi. Apart from pictorial proof sent to FTW that the bypass was being fenced off, a flurry of emails between highranking vested interests has also been made available to drive home industry concern about losing the access way.
In one of the emails a senior representative of Newlyn, Tracy Short, responded to an urgent inquiry about whether or not the PX Shed area would remain open to abnormal cargo, saying “we have considered your request and are unable to accommodate you”. However, earlier this week another anonymous source working for a route
clearance consultancy company that specialises in the transportation of large engineering equipment, said an urgent meeting had been planned between Newlyn, the Department of Transport (DoT), Transnet, senior representatives involved with road haulage, as well as  David Moore, project director at multinational engineering and construction concern, Fluor. It is because of the sensitivity of this meeting and hopes that it will “open Newlyn’s eyes to an issue of national importance”, that FTW’s sources spoke on condition of anonymity. One of our sources explained that the palisade fence going across the bypass meant that the tank he was hauling to Mondi would have to go under the M4 bridge where it passed over South Coast Road. At 12 metres in length, six in diameter and weighing 15 tonnes it is possible for the tank to be transported underneath the bridge. “It means though that it will be de-rigged off the truck when we get to the bridge, passed underneath with the use of jack and slide equipment, and then re-rigged back on to the truck on the other side.” He added that if they had access to the bypass area “it would be a 15-minute operation”, moving it alongside Solomon Mahlangu Drive until it was clear of all infrastructural obstructions. Although clearly concerned
about a project cargo item, the movement of which has been logistically managed for some time, the source added that his exasperation “is nothing compared to the panic that must be felt” by the route clearers that are in the process of planning to get a reactor to Sapref. That reactor, unlike the tank, weighs 235 tonnes, is 7.4 meteres high when on the back of a truck, 32 metres in length and 6.1 metres wide. Another source who regularly speaks to FTW about the bypass issue and is “fed-up enough” to use his name, Kevin Martin of Freightliner Transport, said there was no way the reactor could proceed beyond South Coast Road without using the bypass route to get to the other side of the bridge. Martin, like transport economist Paul Sessions from the eThekwini Transport Authority, has been working hard to drive home how crucial it is to keep the PX route open. Newlyn though, as its massive warehouse facility bordering on the bypass keeps expanding, maintains that it has no obligation to
keep it open. In an email to Transnet Martin stressed that “Newlyn would have been prudent to re-establish what obligation it had to the rest of the South African community with regard to this important route and land area going forward”. And in a slew of communications to which FTW is privy, Sessions has been making it very clear to Transnet – through which Newlyn got the lease – that blocking off the bypass would have severe ramifications for refineries and like-sized industrial concerns. Tim Keith, senior manager of containers and transhipment at Transnet Port Terminals, said he was “confident that Transnet Properties will facilitate a solution soon with Newlyn”. Rroad hauliers like Martin are however increasingly applying pressure to get the bypass issue resolved once and for all. “By whose hand has this happened?” Martin said, asking why an access way that had been in use since the 1960s was not a permanent servitude for project cargo.