Infamous Moloto Road to be upgraded
R1-billion will be spent on upgrading Moloto Road, which has been added to the Sanral network.
The notorious Moloto Road is to be upgraded by Sanral.
A total of R1 billion had been set aside to turn this road of death into a safe route, the SA National Roads Agency Limited said this week.
“We are now responsible for the upgrading of the 93km road, the R573, which stretches from the Mpumalanga/Gauteng border to Marble Hall in Limpopo,” said Sanral’s northern region project manager, Madoda Mthembu.
Thousands of commuters use the road every day and the poor surface condition has resulted in an alarmingly high rate of crashes and fatalities along the route.
In the past 24 months, more than 70 people have died in accidents and many more have been seriously injured.
On 29 July, the government announced that the Moloto Road would become the responsibility of Sanral.
“This has given Sanral the go-ahead to make this deadly road safer,” said Mthembu.
“We agree with the Minister of Transport [Dipuo Peters] that this road needs to be made safer urgently, and that a single authority would ensure [seamless] maintenance.”
The fact that the road meanders through three provinces — Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo — has caused a problem of uncoordinated maintenance.
The R1 billion was allocated by the government to upgrade the road to accommodate current and future traffic needs.
The budget was also for improving and maintaining adjoining roads — filling potholes, clearing stormwater culverts and updating road-signs and markings.
Mthembu said work had already started.
The transport department reportedly said the upgrade did not mean the plan for an integrated rapid rail system on the Moloto development corridor had been shelved, but money constraints meant that road safety had to come first.
An interdepartmental team was working on the details of a integrated rapid rail project, the department explained.
Treasury officials briefed MPs about the upgrade of the Moloto Road last Friday, saying its classification of the Moloto road as a non-toll road had nothing to do with the public resistance to e-tolling.
The Moloto Road did not meet the criteria for a toll road, the officials said.
Part of the R1bn for the road upgrade would come from a R149 million cut in the grant for maintaining provincial roads.
Moloto Road has not only been described as one of the most deadly routes in South Africa, but also in the world.
It has featured on German channel Vox as part of the TV series World’s Most Dangerous Roads, alongside notorious routes in Afghanistan, Bolivia and the Ivory Coast.
In one the worst accidents the past few years, no fewer than 30 people were killed when a bus collided with a truck on the the road in 2013.
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 072 435 7717.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
- We have exciting news! We’re offering a free alert to help you always be in the loop. Send an email with the word ‘Subscribe’ to breakingnews@rekord.co.za to receive your free daily breaking news update.
