K56 debates continue
GLENFERNESS - It is a battle between sustaining the countryside and developing infrastructure in the Greater Kyalami Conservancy with the proposed implementation of the first phase of the K56 road through Glenferness.
The K56 is proposed as an east-west corridor to link the R511 to Main Road. Erling Road will be constructed between the R511 and the K56. These developments have been on the Gauteng Road Network System since the 1970s.
The proposal of the road is still in the scoping phase and the second public meeting was held on 10 October at Gracepoint Church in Glenferness.
Residents of the conservancy turned up in numbers to reject the need for the road.
The residents are fi ghting to maintain the conservancy as a place for the horse industry, wildlife and wetland to fl ourish, but engineers are adamant the road is needed.
Traffi c engineer of WSP consulting engineers Francois van Rensburg said there was a demand for the road. “Transportation modelling was done for the developments in the area, including Steyn City, Century Properties and Northern Farms.
It was estimated that 3 500 vehicles would use the K56 road in the morning peak hours and 3 000 vehicles during the afternoon peak.
Modelling has indicated that the road network cannot cope with the existing and future demands and east-west links are required,” van Rensburg said. The opponents to the road said the property developers see the road as a business opportunity only and will therefore fund the road.
Yet van Rensburg disagreed and said that a study showed 86 percent of the people that would use the road are the general public. “Only three percent will be from Northern Farms, five percent from Steyn City and six percent from Century Properties,” van Rensburg said.
Paul Fairall of Riverine and Wetland Remedial Consultants and Associates said, “It makes more sense to rather upgrade the R55 from Crowthorne to Olievenhoutbosch, which is riddled with accidents, and continue the construction of the K60 as the east-west link.”
His second proposal was to upgrade Zinnia Road to the R511 which he said would prevent the K56 from destroying wetlands, which has the fourth largest bull frog breeding site in the world.
Kristin Kallesen, representing the conservancy, showed a video of the wildlife, horse industry and employment opportunities that would be lost to the K56. She said public transport alternatives were needed, not a new road.
Bokamoso environment consultants and landscape architects are compiling the reports. The Environmental Impact Assessment stage will begin next and, once complete, will be given to the authorities to decide.
