Vela VKE (part of the SMEC Group) head of Rustenburg (North West Province) division, Tshepo Matshego, points out that the company is responsible for the design and construction monitoring phases of the North-West Corridor of the Rustenburg rapid transport (RRT) system. The project is a joint venture involving UWP Consulting Engineers and Phatwe Consulting Engineers, and is estimated to cost R640 million.

“This corridor of the Rustenburg Rapid Transport project involves the development of a public transport route that connects Rustenburg CBD to Phokeng and areas to the north reaching well into the Moses Kotane Local Municipal area. Vela VKE was appointed to the project in August 2011 to design various aspects of the project, and we are currently busy with the conceptual design of the sections in the Rustenburg CBD and from just north of Phokeng, where the project starts, towards Rustenburg,” explains Matshego.

Matshego highlights the fact that the Vela VKE / UWP / Phatwe joint venture was able to complete the design of a section of the trunk route, consisting of new concrete bus lanes and rehabilitation of existing mixed traffic lanes, within five months – four months ahead of schedule, due to municipal requests.

“We started with the concept in October 2011, and the tender was advertised in March 2012. In that time, we had to fast-track our design, in order to ensure that the municipality met its budgetary obligations.”

Matshego believes that the strong working relationship within the joint venture ensured that the conceptual design of the bus lanes was completed successfully, despite the considerable time constraints.

“Both Vela VKE and UWP, in the joint venture, have in-depth experience from working on previous BRT systems nationwide, and we were able to rely on that experience to make accurate assumptions.”

Matshego believes that the Rustenburg Rapid Transport system will be one of the best in the country, when construction work is expected to be fully complete in 2015.