State-owned South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) is undertaking 32 projects, totalling R2.2-billion, in the Eastern Cape, this year.

Sanral CEO Nazir Alli, who is set to retire this month, in a statement following a public lecture at Water Sisulu University, in East London, on Monday, highlighted Sanral’s commitment to the region through road infrastructure programmes on behalf of regional and provincial government for the benefit of local communities, road users and the private sector.
 
The programmes were aimed at benefiting local and regional economies by acting as a catalyst to improve the attractiveness of the region for foreign direct investment, creating safer and sufficient walkway and road-crossing infrastructure for pedestrians and improving road surface and safety conditions for motorists.

Figures released by Sanral’s southern region this week revealed that 1 070 km, or 23%, of the national road network of 4 544 km in Eastern Cape – the province with the most national roads – was being upgraded, preserved or rehabilitated and that all 4 544 km of roads were maintained throughout the year.

As part of its 2015 road infrastructure programme for provincial and regional government, Sanral was undertaking projects on the N2, N6, R61, R63, R65 and R67, in the Eastern Cape.

Included was a R750-million project for periodic maintenance covering 600 km of the national road network, R372-million for special maintenance over a distance of 208 km,
R460-million for rehabilitation of the national road network covering 122 km and R648-million for special upgrading projects on 140 km of the national road network in the province.

Alli said Sanral’s road infrastructure development programmes were supporting the goals of the country’s National Development Plan and stressed that world-class roads for the Eastern Cape would also address poverty, unemployment and income equality, “while supporting the broader goals of national and regional development, transformation and empowerment”.

Statistics released by Sanral’s southern region also showed the value of conventional engineering and routine road maintenance contracts awarded to 625 small, medium-sized and microenterprises between April 2014 and March 2015 was R805-million, and added that 69.76% of beneficiaries were black-owned companies.

The latest Sanral project began on Monday in the Eastern Cape and included the “special maintenance” of a 28 km stretch of the N2 between the Bramlin Interchange and the Coega industrial development zone, in Port Elizabeth. The project entails resurfacing, drainage improvements and localised repairs of existing pavement failures over 18 months.

Further, between Engobo and Port St Johns, the R61 road development and upgrading project was being undertaken in preparation for the region’s catalytic socioeconomic projects, such as the proposed Wild Coast special economic zone. 

The roads agency said in a statement that new roads would also stimulate tourism to a pristine but underdeveloped coastal region along South Africa’s Indian Ocean coast.

“Sanral projects here will also improve [the] safety of pedestrians through several special walkways and pedestrian bridges and, to protect the assets of rural livestock farmers and to reduce motor vehicle accidents, several agricultural underpass culverts are being constructed,” said Sanral.

Sanral’s southern region manager Mbulelo Peterson also said in a statement that the roads agency was proud of innovative community programmes that ran parallel to conventional road engineering projects.

“These developmental programmes have been designed carefully, taking the needs of communities in the region into consideration. Sanral will, this year, spend R179-million on community development projects in the Eastern Cape,” he concluded.