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SANRAL's northern regional manager, Ismail Essa (left) and general communications manager, Vusi Mona.

SANRAL commits to improving local roads

 

The South African National Road Agency Limited (SANRAL) is committed to improving the state of the roads which it had inherited from the Limpopo province.

This was heard during a media briefing held at Pietersburg Club in Polokwane last Friday.

The agency's general communications manager, Vusi Mona, insisted they would continue rehabilitating all the inherited roads. The Limpopo provincial department had transferred at least 1 628 km of roads to the agency.

SANRAL's northern regional manager, Ismail Essa, said that the Makhado/Thohoyandou R524, Vivo R522 and Elim R578 roads were some of the roads which were transferred to them in July this year.

Limpopo Mirror posed a question and wanted to know if SANRAL would be rehabilitating the Vivo road, some parts on the Thohoyandou and the Elim roads, as these roads are currently in a very bad state. Essa responded that, as a government body, they rarely had handy cash for all projects all the time.

“We evaluate roads and prioritise the worst ones,” he said. “We have already appointed contractors to work on [these roads].”

Mona added that inherited roads couldn't be fixed overnight. “In reporting on this, you need to put it in context that these are roads which we inherited,” he said. “We are entering the rainy season and it will be quite challenging. We are committed to making these roads as safe as possible.”

According to Essa, SANRAL had already appointed contractors to start with the maintenance on those roads.

Meanwhile, SANRAL has budgeted R775 million (2014/15), R655 million (2015/16), R746 million (2016/17) and R603 million (2017/18) for maintenance work on non-toll roads in the province. They also budgeted R463 million (2014/15), R773 million (2015/16), R533 million (2016/17) and R174 million (2017/18) for repairs on toll roads. The total on non-toll and toll roads came to R1 239 billion (2014/15), R1 428 billion (2015/16), R1 274 billion (2016/17) and R777 million (2017/18).

The budgeted money will be spent on ad hoc maintenance, routine maintenance, periodic maintenance, structuring, improvements and new facilities.

SANRAL stated that, as the link between South Africa and the rest of Africa, the N1 formed an essential link to stimulate economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa and local economic development in the metropolitan area of Polokwane. As such, SANRAL has budgeted for the upgrading of the N1 ring road around Polokwane (about R700 million) and this project will commence in February 2015. The Musina ring road will be upgraded at an estimated cost of R450 million, with construction to start in July 2015 and construction work at the Mokopane northern ring road is scheduled to start in February 2016, with a budget of R460 million.

The Bathlokwa Shopping Centre pedestrian bridge will be built in Matoks in an effort to prevent road deaths. In SA, at least 15 000 people are killed annually on the country's roads, 40% of whom are pedestrians.

The road to both ZCC churches will also be improved at a cost of R200 million.

 

Date:31 October 2014

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

Read: 2009

 

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