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Already on major N1 and N3 transportation upgrades within Gauteng, previous congestion has now been replaced by free-flowing traffic that is foremost driven by business priorities that are time dependant.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

  • British Columbia awards Quartz Bridge deal
    March 22, 2021
    The Canadian province calls time on the old Quartz Creek Bridge.
  • The A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme takes shape
    May 31, 2017
    Highways England’s project manager gives sneak peek into progress on the UK’s biggest road upgrade now under construction. Road construction workers often find interesting buried items when building roads and the UK’s A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme is proving the point. It’s been less than half a year since construction started on the €1.76 billion A14 scheme, Highways England’s largest ongoing project. Highways England is the wholly government-owned company responsible for modernising, main
  • Smarter paving for Berlin ring road
    December 13, 2018
    Germany’s capital Berlin is now benefiting from a newly widened ring road, which will help reduce peak time congestion Much of the work has been carried out by local contractor Johann Bunte Bauunternehmung, which has helped to widen the Berlin ring road from six to eight lanes. The firm has made extensive use of sophisticated paving controls also on its Vögele machines, the AutoSet Plus automatic functions. And the firm claims that these tools have made the work easier for the paving team to move between t
  • 2+1 type roads – a chance to be better in road safety for Lithuania?
    January 14, 2016
    Lithuania is one of the 28 European Union countries which is seeking to have good results in road safety. However, such as wish does not looks like easy achievable. Moreover, to get away from the worst Top 6 countries in EU could not be achieved since 1991 (by the EU road accidents database - CARE).