Travel plans? Here is what to expect on KZN’s roads this festive season

With traffic volumes set to peak on KZN’s roads over the festive season, motorists are urged to plan their routes ahead of time, owing to various roadworks on different routes, particularly along the province’s south coast.

The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (Sanral) urges travellers to exercise extreme caution as the road construction industry will shut down operations on Thursday, 14 December and resume on 8 January.

The shoulder on the N3 Durban-bound carriageway was closed on 4 December for the construction of a temporary on-ramp at Cliffdale Road overpass.

“The road, which is part of the N3 Key Ridge to Hammarsdale upgrade project, will reopen on approximately 30 March 2024.

“Furthermore, the traffic lanes on the N3 Pietermaritzburg-bound between the M13 and Hammarsdale interchanges will have long-term reduced lane widths from 10 January to 29 July 2024, as part of the construction process for the realignment of the N3 between Key Ridge and Hammarsdale,” said Sanral Eastern Region manager Dumisani Nkabinde.

More roadworks on the busy routes:

• The left-hand shoulder on the N3 eastbound (towards Durban) is closed from the Cliffdale Road overpass for 500m until around 30 March next year.
The slow, middle and fast lanes of the N3 will still be fully open to traffic during construction of the temporary on-ramp.

• Work on the N3 westbound carriageway (towards Pietermaritzburg) between the Cato Ridge interchange and Dardanelles will see oncoming traffic diverted onto the newly-constructed carriageway between the Cato Ridge and Camperdown interchanges, thereby enabling the reconstruction of the eastbound carriageway.

• Short-term single lane closures will be in place between the M13/N3 and Hammarsdale interchanges between 11 December 2023 and 29 February 2024, for the placement of the concrete barriers and for the remarking of traffic lanes.

• There will be lane closures from 9 January to 9 February 2024 between 8pm and 4.30am to facilitate the placement of concrete barriers as part of the construction process for road upgrades from Westville Viaduct to Paradise Valley interchange. The lane closure will take place on the east- and westbound fast lanes of the N3 between Westville Viaduct (Pavilion Mall) and Paradise Valley interchange (N3/M13 split).

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