SANRAL: Conventional tolling planned for Cape Town

Pretoria, 10 August 2014. The South African National Roads Agency Limited SOC Ltd (SANRAL) has dismissed as grossly misleading statements by the City of Cape Town, Right2Know and others that it will implement electronic tolling in Cape Town, as it has in Gauteng.

SANRAL's head of communications Vusi Mona said: "Firstly, whereas in Gauteng we went out to borrow money in order to build the road, with Cape Town we will be appointing a concessionaire on a Build, Operate and Transfer basis. This means the concessionaire will design, finance, operate and maintain the road, returning it to the state in a specified condition at the concession period. 

"Secondly, there will be conventional toll plazas along the N1 and N2. The electronic or automated method of payment, is a possible future consideration dependant on traffic volumes," he said.

The upgrading of the Western Cape's N1-N2 Winelands highway road network is a major infrastructural investment.

Road improvements include the following:

The construction of a 13km new section of N2 in Somerset West/Strand

The provision of additional traffic lanes between Durban Road and the Koelenhof Interchange and between Borcherds Quarry Road and De Beers Avenue in Somerset West, Sir Lowry's Pass to Houwhoek and Florence and Worcester

14 new/upgraded interchanges

 Provision of a second tunnel at Du Toitskloof on the N1

Provision of auxiliary and climbing lanes

Provision of toll-related infrastructure and equipment

Integration of facilities with public transport projects.

"It is always SANRAL's aim that the users of the new tolled facility, be it a brand new road or an upgraded existing road, will derive a real benefit when using that facility in comparison to what it was," Mona said.

Doing so, requires funding.

"SANRAL's allocation from the fiscus is about R10 billion per annum for the entire national road network and the N1/N2 Winelands project requires just about that amount. We obviously can't allocate our entire budget to national roads that pass through one city. The fiscus is under pressure and we have to find alternative ways of financing road infrastructure," he said.

The good news is that SANRAL projects the creation of approximately 5 000 jobs during the construction phase of the N1-N2 Winelands project. Of the jobs created the majority will be for unskilled labour which will benefit members of impoverished communities.

"Seventy-two per cent of these jobs will go to workers at the lower end of the income spectrum. After construction about 600 direct jobs will be generated annually. Also, an increase in productivity due to business timesaving as a result of increased efficiency of the network could generate as many as 148 jobs by the end of the concession period," Mona said.

"These are the facts about the N1-N2 Winelands project," Mona averred.

Statement issued by SANRAL, August 10 2014

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