TRAC’s response to a letter about the stop/go between Nelspruit and Malalane

Good day Mr Ralfe, thank you for your correspondence. As the concessionaires of the N4 Toll Route, Trans African Concessions (TRAC), we welcome your comments and appreciate your advice regarding the construction works and stop/go between Nelspruit and Malalane.

We take pride in customer satisfaction and want to take this opportunity to apologise for the inconvenience caused by construction on the N4, especially in the Crocodile Gorge.

Please note that these road works were undertaken with the view of upgrading the route and in turn, optimise the travel time and safety of our road users.

The existing road infrastructure was old and in desperate need of structural improvement with the reconstruction of the top 300mm of the road being a vital requirement of this upgrade.

In addition to this, we found that we needed to repair and reconstruct the existing road, a task that can only be done in half width.

Unfortunately, such a project can only be effected in sections of approximately six kilometres which once broken up, become non-trafficable. This is a time-consuming exercise which is aggravated by heavy rainfall which was experienced during the 2013/2014 Lowveld summer season.

Although it is common practice to implement temporary traffic bypasses during such projects, this section of road is situated in an extremely difficult and topographically constrained area and after thorough investigations our consulting engineers determined that it was impossible to make a temporary deviation.

Not only is the road’s geometry weaving with a steep vertical grade, the Northern side of the mountain is unstable while on the Southern side the topography drops vertically to the Crocodile River.

At present the N4 has an average traffic volume of 15 000 vehicles per day with Fridays, and days preceding long weekends and school holidays, traditionally being the busiest days.

The increase in traffic flow results in longer queues and being delayed at the stop/go as it takes longer to drain the oncoming traffic through the construction area.

This dilemma is further escalated in the event of a breakdown or accident. TRAC is aware of the delays faced by all road users, but unfortunately the mentioned width restrictions have limited us to one-way traffic through the Crocodile Gorge during this time.

TRAC and its contractors are working around the clock to conclude these road works with the lengthy stop/go at the Crocodile Gorge expected to be replaced by a shorter, daytime stop/go in October 2014. This is expected to significantly decrease the waiting times in this section, thus decreasing lengthy delays and congestion.

The entire project is expected to be completed in January 2015.
Since the start of these road works in April 2013 we have dedicated much of our time and efforts to keeping road users informed and updated on the situation at this particular stop/go at all times.

We do this through the use of Variable Message Signs – the boards you refer to in your letter – as well as through various other media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, where this information reaches thousands of our road users instantly.

With regard to the lack of law enforcement at the construction site – as TRAC we have no law-enforcement authority on the N4 and rely on the SAPS and the traffic police to assist with this matter.

Although we cannot speak on behalf of these law-enforcement agencies, we can testify to having a good working relationship with them as they are always on hand to assist us with any problems.

However, we acknowledge your complaint in this regard and will relay your concerns to them.

We also appreciate your opinion regarding our lack of advice pertaining to alternative routes. We would like to point out that although we often advise the use of these, we can not specify/name them.

The reason for this is that by law we are not permitted to encourage the use of any route or road which we, as concessionaires, do not maintain or manage.

As TRAC, we again apologise for any inconvenience caused during your travels on the N4 Toll Route and thank you for your valued support.