The South African National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) has continued to deliver during the last year, despite a highly challenging environment. Its projects are aimed at contributing to sustainable and shared economic growth over the long term.
South Africa’s successful hosting of the Soccer World Cup in 2010 required Sanral’s involvement to ensure that key road infrastructure was in place for this major sporting event. Sanral delivered the gateways to the King Shaka International and Bloemfontein airports and built additional capacity on the Gauteng freeway improvement project (GFIP). Projects linked to the Soccer World Cup were also completed in Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
Meanwhile, Sanral continues to make greater use of a range of technologies for its projects. At the close of the 2010/11 reporting period, intelligent transport systems covered 500km of roads in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. The rollout of these technologies makes South Africa’s roads safer and more efficient. It also creates jobs.
Expanding role
With time, provincial and local road networks continue to deteriorate and the relevant authorities face serious capacity constraints. Parliament, recognising Sanral’s capacity and sound business model, has asked the agency to examine whether it could expand its role. This issue was debated at the May 2010 Road Summit, where it was resolved to increase the extent of the road network for which Sanral is responsible. Sanral, along with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), is in the third year of a five-year research and development programme to update South Africa’s pavement design method. This project is making steady progress.
Research-based decisions
By the close of the reporting period, 45 technical research reports had been produced. During 2010/11 the project’s scope was extended to address limitations and incorporate new international research. Sanral has also invested in research projects that resulted in new specifications and procedures for traffic modelling, road classification, access management, engineering service contributions, traffic impact assessment guidelines and a road safety index. It has introduced the multi-lane free flow system, also known as an open road tolling system, on the GFIP. This system is fully inter-operable and allows for a toll transaction to take place seamlessly through the use of an e-tag and receiver mounted on a gantry. The operation of this phase of the GFIP will create about 900 quality jobs in the information, communication and telecommunications fields.
Challenges
Sustainability is a central concern in all Sanral activities. It aims to make a constructive contribution to South Africa’s social and economic development while protecting the ecosystem. Sanral’s challenge is to remain a focused and learning organisation that retains its talent while delivering on its mandate to South Africa citizens. It works to improve the condition of the national road network despite the serious financial constraints that it faces. It will continue to use technology to work more efficiently and to better manage the road network.
The nature of its business has changed with the introduction of electronic toll collection, which compels it to complement its skills set. New communication technologies would need to be used to improve all aspects of road transport, with an emphasis on greater service and safety for motorists. Notwithstanding the temporary setback with regard to the GFIP and attempts to delay implementation of the N1/N2 Winelands toll roads, Sanral continues to explain the benefits of the user-pays principle. Relying solely on tax-based revenues to fund the backlog of road infrastructure in South Africa is not sustainable.
This article originally appeared in the Mail & Guardian newspaper as an advertorial supplement