Planning for new highways has been brought to a standstill due to a severe lack of funds, the South African National Roads Agency’s (SANRAL) manager for tolls and traffic Alex van Niekerk said.

Speaking at the Transport Forum Month of Transport Celebrations summit, van Niekerk announced that highways which were upgraded under the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) will reach their capacity within the next three to five years due to the growing number of vehicles.

“There is very little that we (SANRAL) can still do,” van Niekerk said. “It is anticipated that traffic conditions will then be similar or worse than before the implementation of the GFIP in 2008,” he added.

The GFIP was a three-phase project that planned to use a sustainable revenue stream through the user pay principle system of e-tolling to fund the much needed freeway upgrades and future phases of the project.

“With insufficient funding available to SANRAL, phases two and three are unlikely to be implemented,” he said, as the agency is a 3A state-owned entity and does not make a profit. “We can only look to the Gauteng Provincial Government and Treasury,” he said.

Behind schedule

SANRAL plans the construction of a new freeway five years in advance based on extensive traffic modelling, travel demand patterns, and city planning and urban development.

Van Niekerk said that phases two and three of the GFIP should have already begun.

According to the initial GFIP roll out plan, the PWV 14, linking the R21 at OR Tambo with the N3/M2 at the Geldenhuys interchange should have been completed. The PWV 9, a parallel route to the N1 between Pretoria and Johannesburg was also supposed to be under construction already, however the projects have not begun and congestion on the networks have begun increasing.

Highest affected areas

All the major metropolitan areas have faced high levels of congestion and motorists often spend hours travelling to and from work. According to the Tom Tom Congestion Index, Cape Town is currently the most congested city in South Africa.

“Traffic congestion has negative impacts on society, the environment and economy,” van Niekerk said and added that Gauteng and Durban also face severe traffic congestion.

Solutions

Van Niekerk said “It is important to note that the solution to congestion and transportation issues do not lie in a single solution,” and suggested that as part of an integrated transport solution, the following could also help:

• More freeways
• Public transport
• Travel demand management
• Intelligent Transport Systems
• Incident Management Systems
• Upgrading and expanding the supporting road network by provincial and municipal authorities