Rand Aid development to have minimal impact
“It is unlikely that traffic [motorists] travelling to and from the retirement village would choose to travel through the Essexwold road enclosure”
In response to Ward 19 Clr Bill Rundle’s concerns about the proposed Rand Aid development, Dr Herman Joubert from Tech IQ Consulting Engineers emphasised that the development would generate low trips.
“Trip generation is calculated as the product of the trip generation rate multiplied by the number of units in the development.
“In this instance, 120 retirement units x 0.35 peak hour trips per unit equals 48 trips.”
He said the TMH16 South African Traffic Impact and Site Traffic Assessment Manual (August 2012) requires a traffic impact assessment when the additional peak hour trip generation exceeds 50 peak hour trips.
Dr Joubert said retirement villages have a very low trip generation rate and the number of peak hour trips (both direction of travel combined) is 48 trips.
“The preferred environmental capacity of a collector road such as Marais Road is 500 vehicles per hour with a maximum environmental capacity of 1 000 vehicles per hour.”
He said the existing traffic volume on Marais Road is lower and the additional traffic demand of the retirement village is also low.
“The total expected traffic is far less than the capacity of the road.”
Examples, given by Dr Joubert, of developments which would generate higher trips include doctors’ consulting rooms, a fitness centre, shopping centre or large residential estates.
Dr Joubert said if a full traffic impact assessment (TIA) was done elements of the local access and collector road network that may be affected by the development to the extent that standards and requirements are no longer met would have been included.
Dr Joubert said a full TIA is not required and not relevant as far as the application is concerned.
“It must be noted that arterial roads are excluded from TIA’s and must be addressed at a master planning level.”
Dr Joubert explained that Penhurst Avenue was excluded from the assessment because Marais Road is the most practical and logical access route to the area.
The consultants do not expect traffic to make use of Penhurst Avenue and its inclusion is not warranted.
Dr Joubert said the development should not have any meaningful impact or effect on Penhurst Avenue or the internal roads within the Essexwold Road enclosure.
“It is unlikely that traffic [motorists] travelling to and from the retirement village would choose to travel through the Essexwold Road enclosure.”
To do this they would have to pass through two access control gates.
“Residents are retired persons and travel outside peak periods when roads are uncongested.”
If residents from the retirement village were to make use of Penhurst Avenue to access the road under the N3, Dr Joubert described the additional amount of traffic during peak hours as insignificant.
