Skip to main content

South Africa's world class tollway development

Part of an extensive motorway network measuring some 185km, the ongoing Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GIFP) is creating a modern, world-class toll route system that provides major impetus to socio-economic growth in South Africa's most populous and commercially active region.
May 8, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Part of an extensive motorway network measuring some 185km, the ongoing Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GIFP) is creating a modern, world-class toll route system that provides major impetus to socio-economic growth in South Africa's most populous and commercially active region.

Being implemented in stages by the 3156 South African National Road Agency (SANRAL), these routes radiate outwards from the country's largest city Johannesburg to Pretoria's industrial and residential centres and to all points of the compass.

Already on major N1 and N3 transportation upgrades within Gauteng, previous congestion has now been replaced by free-flowing traffic that is foremost driven by business priorities that are time dependant. So too are the ensuing construction works.

National Route 12 (N12) is one of SANRAL's strategic priorities and it is here that civil engineering contractor 3038 Raubex Construction is  implementing a ACTFILE LOCATION:

• South Africa
PROJECT:
• National Route 12 (N12)
CONTRACTOR:
• Raubex Construction
EQUIPMENT:
178 Caterpillar RM500 rotary mixer
complete  overhaul on Section 19, an intensive programme running over 30 months.

Three major new interchanges, successive bridge widenings and an east and westbound three-lane highway in either direction will replace the existing N12 dual carriageway system along approximately 10km between the current Tom Jones and Daveyton on- and off-ramps.

The median reserve will be replaced by a central concrete median barrier to make room for the new lanes, which is where the roadworks begin, progressively moving from the inside out to complete the new freeway system.

This is the main access point passing into and out of Gauteng's West Rand region to the agricultural and mining heartland of Mpumalanga province.

Managing high traffic densities together with major road realignments will be just one of a number of challenges that need to be carefully managed. The N12 design calls for an emulsion and cement stabilisation mix for the sub-base layers.

"The N12 contract follows a similar pattern to the SANRAL project we completed in May 2010 for Section 1 of the R21 upgrade, which links OR Tambo International Airport with Pretoria [South Africa's capital]," explains Raubex Construction operations manager, Wouter van der Merwe.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Kuwait’s Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway opens
    August 27, 2019
    World Highways revisits the world’s fourth longest sea bridge - four years to construct and which has slashed travel time between Kuwait’s largest island and the capital city
  • Italy’s construction market is growing
    November 18, 2019
    Investments in the construction sector continue to grow, driven by the resumption of public works.
  • Geosynthetic drainage technology developments
    June 13, 2012
    An innovative solution to providing vital, low-impact surface water control for one of Britain’s largest local authority road schemes is said to have been recently achieved using Hydro International’s (HI) Hydro Vortex Drop Shaft  ow control technology. The new 7km bypass built by Costain at Church Village, near Pontypridd, South Wales, required careful planning to minimise its effect on the countryside and the local environment. Rhondda Cynon Taff Council needed to bypass Church Village to reduce traf c
  • Concrete plants: flexibility and efficiency
    March 17, 2016
    Concrete mixing plants are becoming more flexible and innovative to ensure they meet increasingly stringent construction schedules. Increasing demands are put on contractors to cut down the transportation of material to construction sites in the name of efficiency and the environment. For that reason concrete mixing plants are increasingly flexible in their transportation to sites, their set up times and their output. Ammann Elba, the company created when German-based Elba was acquired by Ammann in 20