SANRAL: Construction of R81 road to be completed by Feb 2022

LIMPOPO – The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) has confirmed that the construction of the R81 from Munnik to Ga-Sekgopo is approximately 93% complete and is anticipated to be completed by the end of January 2022.

The construction contract commenced in August 2019 with a completion date of February 2021.

The initial construction period was 18 months, however, due to several disruptions and tropical storm Eloise, the construction duration had to be extended.

Sanral project manager for the Northern Region, Hannes van der Merwe, said that the R152 million project is progressing well, and continues to play a pivotal role in creating jobs and providing training opportunities for residents of Ga-Sekgopo village.

“The main contractor, Lonerock Construction (Pty) Ltd, has appointed up to 20 small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) to work on the project as subcontractors. The number of community members employed since the beginning of the project is 164. The project also includes accredited NQF Level 3 and 4 training opportunities, and up to 95 local community members attended the training courses. The training included entrepreneurial skills, calculating construction quantities, tendering for construction projects and training on installing stormwater gabion baskets on a construction site,” said Van der Merwe.

The project has a contractual requirement that 20% of the contract value must be allocated to targeted enterprises and 6% of the contract value must be allocated to targeted labour.

For the targeted labour, R7.5 million was spent on youth workers and R6.3 million was spent on female workers. For the targeted enterprises, R20.6 million was spent on women-owned enterprises. There is an obligation that a contractor may exceed the Contract Participation Goal (CPG) targets but failure to achieve these targets, individually, carries penalties. The contractor has exceeded all the required labour targets, thus far, except for the youth-owned targeted enterprises.

“Once this section of the R81 has been completed, the road will contribute to facilitating improved mobility, and the safe movement of goods and services all the way from Polokwane to Giyani. Traffic flow will improve significantly given the wider road surface and enhanced safety features for both vehicles and pedestrians in the Ga-Sekgopo village. The R81 serves as an alternative to the R71 to Tzaneen and Phalaborwa with lower road gradients, which lowers travel times and vehicle operating costs despite being a longer route than the R71,” said Van der Merwe.

He added that the biggest benefit is the much-improved pedestrian safety that the contract brought about. The employment of local labour, from GaSekgopo village, the wages earned during the construction activities and these wages again being spent in the Ga-Sekgopo local area is a major economic benefit for the community.

The project consists of the construction of a compulsory heavy vehicle stop at the top of the mountain pass to allow the heavy vehicles to engage in low gear before commencing the downhill descent, the construction of wider formal intersections with turning lanes, walkways and public transport laybys, installation of new and additional road signs and painting of road markings to improve the safety of both vehicles and pedestrians.

Two bridges are also included in the contract. Both bridges are roadover-river bridges. The one bridge is widened to accommodate the wider road lanes and to provide for pedestrian sidewalks on both sides of the bridge. The second bridge was reconstructed to a higher level and to increase the width of the bridge to be the same as the other bridge.

The height of the bridge was increased to facilitate a bigger flood capacity of the bridge. Sanral Northern Region’s manager, Progress Hlahla commended the positive impact Sanral brings through its projects. “Sanral recognises that it can help to build a capable and developmental state and drive economic development through the provision and maintenance of critical infrastructure.

The improvement of R81 national road from Munnik to Ga-Sekgopo showcases how this is coming to life. Local businesses and communities are accessing employment and training opportunities through this project, as well as opportunities to tender for sub-contracting,” said Hlahla.