Gauteng’s residents brace themselves for better roads as the first phase of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) nears completion.

By Ian Armitage

Gauteng drivers have more reasons to smile than most. Why? Well (in case you haven’t been or read a newspaper in the last two years), there is something remarkable happening which will ease peak-hour traffic and improve the whole road network – some improvements, in fact, have already been made. Who has made these improvements possible? The South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL), of course.

SANRAL is busy working on the R15 billion Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), which will see freeways opened up to at least four lanes and in some cases, six in each direction. Other measures include improved interchange access, better lighting, traffic management strategies such as intelligent transport management systems including live cameras and electronic signs that supply up-to-date information, and an open-road electronic toll collection system.

“Gauteng is the economic hub of South Africa,” says GFIP project manager Alex van Niekerk of the province that generates 38 percent of South Africa’s economy activity. “The province has developed beyond its infrastructural capabilities, with roads unable to keep abreast of increasing traffic demands.”

The GFIP comprises numerous different phases to upgrade and implement new highways of an ultimate 560km highway network, he says.

The first phase, comprising the upgrading of 185km of the highways, is currently under construction and close to completion.

“The GFIP concentrates on the N1 between Pretoria and Johannesburg,” says van Niekerk. “It also includes other major arteries such as the N3, N12, N17 and the R21 route from Pretoria to OR Tambo International Airport.”

The portion of the N1 national highway between Johannesburg and Pretoria carries 180,000 vehicles every day and is just a small section of the 16,170km of major national roads overseen by SANRAL.

“Bottlenecks at interchanges will be significantly reduced,” van Niekerk adds.

The relief is already evident, as motorists are enjoying much freer flowing traffic through the recently completed interchanges such as Malibongwe, William Nicol, Rivonia and Gillooly’s.

A total of 34 Interchanges will be upgraded in phase one.

“The first phase is expected to be finished in the first half of 2011, but over 80 percent of the project has already been completed,” van Niekerk explains.

The remaining road upgrades, which are still in progress, include the Lynnwood interchange in Pretoria and the Allandale interchange in Midrand. In Johannesburg the Marlboro, Modderfontein, Linksfield, Edenvale, Kraft, Atlas and Bapsfontein interchange.

“The project has suffered delays but is on target for 2011,” van Niekerk says. “One of the big challenges has been the acute shortage of bitumen in South Africa, which is used to produce asphalt, which is used in road construction.”

Van Niekerk says that the R21 airport road will be fully completed by the end of the year, with lane availability during the holiday period restricted on other roads owing to the bitumen shortage.

Open-road toll collection

What makes the project unique is that SANRAL is set to implement an open-road toll collection system.

“We obtain funding in two ways,” says van Niekerk. “The first of these are grants from the National Treasury, which are used to fund non-toll roads. The remainder of the roads are toll roads, which are funded from borrowings on the capital and money markets.”

The revenue received from tolling will be ring-fenced, he says. “The money will be used for the repayment of the debt incurred to complete the GFIP, and for maintaining and operating the upgraded road network.”

He adds that the estimated 50c/km-plus toll fee, as was indicated in 2007, will also be used to pay for the value-added services to become available on the Gauteng road network once tolling goes live, such as the provision of tow trucks, improved lighting, as well as stand-by medical assistance.

The system also has to finance the rollout of further phases of the GFIP, which SANRAL will initiate in 2013.

Kapsch, an Austrian-based company, won the contract to implement and operate the Gauteng toll collection system, along with its Cape-based partner, Traffic Management Technologies (TMT).

Van Niekerk says that high traffic volumes (between 100,000 and 200,000 vehicles a day) make a conventional toll impractical, so the best way to monitor and control payment is by means of electronic toll technology.

“Tolling will be introduced on the Gauteng Freeway network,” he explains. “A number of overhead toll gantries will be erected along the GFIP route in order to collect the toll fees. This ultimately means that the road users will only pay for the kilometres travelled -- calculated by the number of gantries passed -- and not for the entire stretch of freeway that is tolled.”

This will be Africa’s first open road toll collection system and the biggest implementation of its kind in the world. Van Niekerk points to countries like Chile as a great example of how this system works and benefits people.

It will help ease congestion and delays in travel time, he says.

“The open road toll collection system has no physical toll booths,” van Niekerk explains. “It is a multi-lane, free flow form of electronic collection that allows vehicles to pass through toll points without having to stop or slow down. On the GFIP network, the overhead gantries will be fitted with the toll collection equipment that will recognise an e-tag fitted in each vehicle and money will be deducted from a user’s registered e-toll account.”

He says SANRAL is still optimising its discount model but that motorbikes, frequent travellers, off-peak travellers and public transport operators will receive a discount, as will e-tag holders.

“Users only pay for the portion of road they use, calculated by the number of gantries passed,” van Niekerk stresses.



South Africa Magazine, Issue 9