A total of R22-billion will be spent in the next seven years on upgrading and expanding Gauteng’s freeways, Business Report wrote on Monday.
The project will be managed by the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral), the provincial government, and the Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni metropolitan councils.
The Ben Schoeman highway between Johannesburg and Pretoria will get an additional lane in each direction and two lanes will be added to the R21 highway in each direction as part of the planned expenditure, which involves 500km of road.
Ismail Essa, Sanral’s manager for the northern region, said all the highways included in the project would be tolled after 2010 by means of an electronic billing system.
The project was ”too high risk” to become a public-private partnership or concession.
The tolling on the freeway would be ”a state toll and managed by Sanral on behalf of the state”.
The intention is that vehicles will pay 30c a kilometre. It will cost R5 in toll fees to travel from Centurion to Sandton and back.
Essa said R6-billion of the expenditure was earmarked for upgrading work from 2008 to 2010. A further R14-billion would be spent on new roads between 2010 and 2013.
The expenditure up to 2010 will largely be used to upgrade:
- the R21 from the N1 to the N12 in Ekurhuleni;
- the N1 from the R21 split to the Buccleuch interchange;
- the N1 ring road around Johannesburg to the Golden Highway; and
- a small section of road to relieve traffic pressure around Nasrec and link the N17 with northern Soweto.
- There will also be minor upgrades to the M1 from the Buccleuch interchange towards Johannesburg and sections of the R24 and the N12 near OR Tambo International Airport. – Sapa.