{"id":717158,"date":"2023-09-08T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=717158"},"modified":"2023-09-08T11:19:46","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T09:19:46","slug":"r4-7-billion-plan-to-upgrade-one-of-south-africas-busiest-highways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/717158\/r4-7-billion-plan-to-upgrade-one-of-south-africas-busiest-highways\/","title":{"rendered":"R4.7 billion plan to upgrade one of South Africa&#8217;s busiest highways"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sanral is set to start the R4.7 billion revamp on the N3 Highway, with the upgrades expected to take over four years to complete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The upgrades will occur from the Westville viaduct and the Paradise Valley interchange in Durban. This will also affect traffic near the highly popular Pavilion Mall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Motorists should expect delays on the nearly 6km stretch of road for the 51 months needed to do the upgrades and have been told to take alternative routes where possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking to <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pvJ69vMPLR4\" target=\"_blank\">eNCA<\/a>, Ravi Ronny from Sanral broke down all of the upgrades that will take place on the N3: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Increase the number of lanes from four to six per direction<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Upgrades to the Westville and Paradise Valley interchange<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Upgrades to overpasses on the 6km stretch <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Upgrade to roughly 1.5km for the N13, which crosses over the N3 mainline <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Improvements to the local road network <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Ronny added that the route had seen an extensive increase in traffic over the last few years, with it also being the most-used freight route in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"4wTEwmu6hm\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/708310\/business-activity-in-south-africa-takes-a-hit-as-trucks-come-under-fire\/\">Business activity in South Africa takes a hit as trucks come under fire<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Business activity in South Africa takes a hit as trucks come under fire&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/708310\/business-activity-in-south-africa-takes-a-hit-as-trucks-come-under-fire\/embed\/#?secret=x7WRvvndEx#?secret=4wTEwmu6hm\" data-secret=\"4wTEwmu6hm\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, he noted that are several plans in place to help motorists cope with the upgrades: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Three lanes will be open per direction over the four years<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Each interchange will have one lane open<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The M1, M5, M7 and M19 have also been upgraded to help with the divergence of traffic <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Questions around supplier<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the upgrades have been deemed necessary due to the number of vehicles that go on the route, SANRAL has been questioned over giving the contract to a company whose directors are on trial for fraud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/sanral-defends-giving-r47bn-contract-to-company-charged-with-fraud-20230906\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">News24<\/a>, Aqua Transport and Plant Hire has had numerous allegations of irregularity in the public sector, with its directors on trial for allegedly defrauding the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport of over R1.5 million.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Sanral is aware of the allegations Aqua Transport and Plant Hire is facing. According to the information at our disposal, Aqua is not blacklisted on the National Treasury&#8217;s Central Supplier Database, and, as such, the company is not prohibited from doing business with the government and\/or its entities,&#8221; the road agency said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/715270\/these-are-all-the-cars-you-can-get-for-under-r390000-in-south-africa-right-now\/\" target=\"_blank\">These are all the cars you can get for under R390,000 in South Africa right now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A R4.7 billion upgrade to the N3 is kicking off next month, and will cause delays and disruptions on the route for the next 4 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":717176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[26,429],"class_list":["post-717158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-headline","tag-sanral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717158"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717194,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717158\/revisions\/717194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}