Work begins on Bayhead Road extension

The flow of seafreight
traffic through the Port of
Durban should be vastly
improved after the finish
of the dual carriageway
extension on Bayhead
Road – the sole road access
to the two major container
terminals.
Work has now started,
and the contractors expect to
complete it by April, 2012.
The current road handles
about 200 000 container
truck movements each
month.
The upgrade of the
roadway (as indicated on the
graphic) will be to realign
a portion of the road and
extend the dual carriageway
all the way from the
Langeberg Road turnoff to
Durban Container Terminal
on Pier 2, to the Pier 1
terminal and the big dry
bulk and oil terminals of the
Bluff and Island View.
But an even more critical
part of the plan is to have
two extensive staging areas
built on land in the Kings
Rest area (adjacent to the
tank washout facility) –
essentially parking areas for
the terminals’ overflow of
vehicles.
Solly Kuppan, the
project’s liaison and
communication manager,
and a transportation
planner with the consulting
engineers Aurecon, told
FTW that the present vehicle
capacity of the Bayhead
Road could more than
handle the traffic flow – if it
could be kept moving.
“But,” he added, “the
problem starts when you
have stationary vehicles with
nowhere to go, parked by the
roadside and blocking the
roadway.”
This frequently leads to
traffic jams as long as five/
six kilometres – blocking
free traffic movement on
the two-lane Old South
Coast Road and the multilane
highway of Edwin
Swales VC Drive – which
is the main highway in and
out of the Durban terminal
network.
“The staging areas will
have capacity for about 120
vehicles,” said Kuppan,
“with a system to call them
to the respective terminals
where they are to be loaded/
unloaded.”
This, he added, will
improve the circulation of
the container trucks, and
keep them off the Bayhead
Road until the terminal is
clear to take them.
Another essential element
in the attempts to improve
the flow of vehicles in the
Bayhead area of the port is
the direct link road to Edwin
Swales VC Drive.
But, said Kuppan, whether
planning for this gets a
‘yeah’ or a ‘nay’ will only
be decided after the current
extension is completed, in
two years’ time.