R36 and R37 versus Sanral
On the outskirts of town, two high volume provincial roads lead motorists and tourists to their places of employment and holiday destinations.
LYDENBURG – The Burgersfort Road (R37) is currently under construction and the Ohrigstad Road (R36) is an accident hotspot.
The South African National Roads Agency SOC (Sanral) visited Mpumalanga on several occasions in 2021 and made the budget for the completion of these projects known.
Over R3bn has been set aside for conventional road construction and nearly R350m for operations and maintenance in the province. The deputy minister of transport, Sindisiwe Chikunga, said at the Mashishing Community Hall in October 2021 that Sanral is committed to making the R36 and R37 safe.
“The work needed for the initiative includes general road maintenance such as potholes and road surface repairs along with the affected network of the road, grass cutting, storm-water drainage, fencing, and road signs. The project is estimated to take 36 months,” said Chikunga.
The expected construction duration will be 15 months. It started in June/ July 2021.
Typical work to be done will include concrete pavement repair, pre-treatment of the existing road, traffic accommodation as well as drainage and structures improvements.
Both the R36 and R37 are notorious for serious vehicle accidents.
Steelburger/Lydenburg News reported on Thursday January 20 about Bradley Garcia (21) who has retrograde amnesia after an accident on the R36 in September 2021.
On Sunday January 16 two men suffered serious injuries when their vehicles collided on the R36 close to the Pilgrim’s Rest turn off.
Steelburger/Lydenburg News reached out to Sanral and asked if more temporary measures could be put in place while the whole project was being finished. For instance filling the potholes that are causing the majority of the accidents on the R36. No feedback was received at the time going to press.Info block:
On Facebook readers commented the following after reading the article online about the accident on Sunday January 16:
• “It must be the potholes. The road is now worse than ever!” said Karen van der Meulen.
• “I heard the impact while I was standing in my kitchen. It was shocking,” said Antoinette van Aswegen.
• “This is a very bad road,” said Jeremia LaMmatau Letswalo.
