Polokwane/Musina ring roads to reduce travelling time on N1 between Gauteng and Musina

POLOKWANE – Getting stuck in traffic is a nightmare, especially when you’re traveling over a long distance.

Intersections and lower speed restrictions in towns create a significant increase in travel time and vehicle operating costs, particularly for the heavy vehicles. The additional traffic passing through town, especially the heavy vehicles, takes it’s toll on the local roads, resulting in higher costs going into maintaining the roads of which town struggle to attain.

A way to manage this problem is provision of an alternative route for vehicles to make their way around the town and traffic can flow without interruptions and at normal highway speeds, known as a ring road. Ring roads can reduce congestion in the towns, enhance safety, sustain the environment and reduce infrastructure damage. The N1 to Musina from Gauteng is one of the they country’s strategic routes, it provides a gateway to Zimbabwe and the rest of the African continent. As a result, this road carries high volumes of truck traffic, including trucks used for trans-border freight services.

The South African National Roads Agency SOC Ltd ( SANRAL), the sole custodian of the road introduced the construction of two ring roads which will redirect traffic around Polokwane and Musina rather than through these towns. According to Hennie Kotze, SANRAL Project Manager for the Musina Ring Road project, the main link between South Africa and the rest of Africa is the N1, and at present, an estimated 1000 heavy vehicles use the road and pass through the Musina CBD per day. It creates conflict with the local traffic and pedestrians due to the congestion and damage to infrastructure is inevitable. “As far back as 2006 SANRAL has identified the need to provide an alternative route for the N1 through traffic by providing a ring road around the town,” he said.

Did You Know? The construction of the Musina Ring Road in Limpopo required the relocation of several ancient and very large baobab trees. None of the trees were lost and all are now thriving in their new locations. #BeyondRoads pic.twitter.com/Om3ysDuII1

— SANRAL (@SANRAL_za) December 11, 2018

In October 2007, SANRAL received a resolution from the municipal council in Musina, with which they supported the concept of a ring road. SANRAL then started with the environmental impact assessment, the detail design as well as land acquisition processes. Late 2015, Basil Read was awarded the contract for the construction of the ring road and the contract value is R 506 million. The roads will be called the Musina and Nancefield interchanges. Construction commenced in April 2015 and is earmarked to be completed by mid-2020 if there are no delays. The project consists of an 8 km new single carriageway way road, with one lane in each direction and paved shoulders, on the western side of the Musina CBD. The road will function as a highway with controlled access to and from the N1. Therefore, access to the town will be provided through two interchanges, one at the southern entrance to town and one at the northern entrance.

Alan Agaienz, the SANRAL Project Manager for the Polokwane Ring Road project believes the construction of the new ring road will ease congestion in the city centre by taking through traffic around the town. R700 million was allocated for the project over 20 months and the project has been delayed by about four to five months due to financial constraints suffered by the main contractor. “Basil Read was recently placed under Business Rescue for financial assistance. All work had to be stopped during that period. However, work recommenced on 27 September 2018 following a resolution by Business Rescue not to liquidate the company” he said. The work that need to be done included the improvement of the existing 80km/h geometric alignment, vertically and horizontally to comply with the 100km/h design requirements. Two existing at-grade intersections at the R37/N1 and Silicon/N1 were upgraded to grade-separated interchanges to improve traffic flow and safety. There was also the upgrade the from a two-lane (one-lane per direction) single carriageway to a four-lane (two-lanes per direction) dual carriageway to take up more traffic traffic and improve safety.
reporter04@ngroup.co.za