The Civil Engineering Contractor January 2018 | Page 9

ON CONTRACTORS’ SITES
R550m road upgrade completed
South African National Roads Agency SOC Ltd (SANRAL) announced that a major work activity stream of the
R61 mega road infrastructure project in the Eastern Cape has been completed.
The dual carriageway at Corana with replacement houses on the left.
The R550-million Mthatha Sprigg
Street to Ngqeleni road infrastructure
development and safety programme is
also part of a master plan for tourism
and other long-term mega projects in the
Eastern Cape.
The project commenced on
16 September 2013 and was completed
on 8 September 2017. The project
consists of the construction of a new
7.3km dual carriageway between
Mthatha and the turn off to Ngqeleni.
The east bound carriageway was newly
constructed, while the west bound
carriageway entailed an upgrade of
existing road infrastructure.
The new carriageway has six new
bridges – one each over the Mthatha
River, the Corana River, Sidwadweni
River on Bernard Schultz Drive, an
agricultural overpass bridge at Ngqeleni
Turn-off and two new interchange
bridges at the Ngqeleni Turn-off.
Two large agricultural underpass
culverts were also constructed.
“The R61 Mthatha Sprigg Street to
Ngqeleni Turn-off project is one of several
projects, each with different starting
and completion dates in a mega road
infrastructure development and safety
programme for the R61 which commenced
in 2011 and will be completed by 2020,”
says Mbulelo Peterson, SANRAL Southern
Region manager.
The plan is to improve the safety of
the road users and pedestrians through
the closing of unsafe intersections, a
new interchange at Ngqeleni turn-off
and the construction of formalised and
channelised intersections. This is also an
integrated road safety programme which
aims to decrease road hazards which
may lead to accidents and motor vehicle
accident (MVA) related deaths.
Many accidents on the R61 between
Mthatha and Ngqeleni involve motorists
hitting stray animals. To address the
problem, SANRAL has constructed two
agricultural underpass culverts as part
of the R61 Mthatha Sprigg Street to
Ngqeleni Turn-off project.
SANRAL delivered 31 new replacement
houses to residents whose dwellings fell
within the construction footprint, and in the
process eradicated poorly constructed homes.
The project also links with other
programmes, including the conversion
of Sprigg Street and Madeira Street
in Mthatha’s Central Business District
(CBD) into a one-way system to improve
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