NATIONAL NEWS - The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has announced that the national road network is ready for the festive season load, as traffic volumes are set to increase on all major routes across the country.
Sanral manages just less than 5% of the country’s total road network but carries up to 80% of all long-distance traffic.
Sanral spokesperson, Vusi Mona confirms that all construction on national roads will end today, 13 December, saying that most of the key routes around the country would be open and free flowing.
Routine road maintenance teams would, however, remain on standby to ensure they are able to respond to any incidents.
Sanral’s Road Incident Management System (RIMS) runs off a network of Centralised Communication Centres (CCCs). Information is dispatched by the CCC to the relevant unit to ensure a coordinated and effective response, based on the nature of the incident.
Emergency numbers are posted on Sanral signage along national roads, but the 10111 and 10177 numbers can be used for all emergencies.
Mona explains that location marker boards (or blue marker boards) are located every 200m on national routes. These boards contain the name of the route, i.e. N1, N2, N3, N7 and so on, as well as the particular section of the road, the direction of travel and the kilometre distance.
“In case of any incident, please find the closest board and note the details so that the operator at the communication centre is able to direct a response team to an accurate location,” says Mona.
The Freeway Management System (FMS) monitors more than 500km of the busiest freeways across the country, particularly in the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
Mona says from these multi-modal operations centres, operators are able to identify an incident and dispatch the relevant response teams in under three minutes.
Some of the national routes with the most traffic during December include:
• N2 North Coast – Durban to Tongaat
• N2 South Coast – Durban to Winkelspruit
• N4 East – Pretoria to Nelspruit
• N1 North – Pretoria to Polokwane
• N3 South – Johannesburg to Durban
• N4 West – Pretoria to Brits
• N1 South – Johannesburg to Bloemfontein to Cape Town
• N7 North – Cape Namibia Route
• N2 through Nelson Mandela Bay
• R61 East and West of Mthatha
• N6 – East London to Kei Road
• N10 – South of Cradock
• R63 East of Qonce (King William’s Town)
• N9 – Aberdeen to Graaff-Reinet
Traffic volumes are also expected to be high on the major routes connecting neighbouring states such as Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Mona urges motorists to enjoy SANRAL’s road safety activities at strategic points along the national road network.
The Gwaiing River bridge on the N2 outside George has been a work in progress for many years. Photo: Alida de Beer “Sanral is collaborating with other roads authorities and will be hosting several road safety activations. These events promote engagement with motorists when they stop at fuel stations along their journeys.
"Sanral will distribute road safety education pamphlets and other goodies. We will offer travellers water to stay hydrated and we will also provide entertainment for children.”
He says Sanral’s all year-round road safety campaign, Road Safety One, is centred on every individual taking personal responsibility for road safety, by doing just one thing that could save a life. “This includes deciding to not drink and drive, using pedestrian facilities to safely cross the road, using the rest and service sites to take regular breaks on long-distance journeys or wearing reflective clothing when walking or cycling at night.”
Sanral thanks the many law enforcement officers, emergency medical teams, rescue services and all other service providers who will be on duty on all the busy routes this holiday and wishes all road users a safe, blessed and prosperous festive season.
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