Varied views on Adams Road upgrade proposal
A public open day will be held on Thursday, 29 October at Lords and Legends.
There are mixed reactions to the long-awaited news of the proposed upgrade of the Adams Road interchange.
The South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) originally identified the need to upgrade the Adams Road interchange as part of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Highway project, and environmental authorisation was applied for in 2010. However, the current proposed layout and footprint for upgrading the interchange differ substantially from the original layout that was assessed and approved.
To accommodate the new layout and footprint, SANRAL must submit a new application for environmental authorisation and undertake the required basic assessment process.
The reason for the project is to:
- Upgrade the interchange and associated road network to comply with relevant road standards;
- Improve traffic safety;
- Increase the traffic capacity to accommodate current and future traffic volumes; and
- Improve free-flow traffic movement.
“The Adams Road onramp and offramp has always reminded me of a work in progress – almost as if someone forgot to include it into their planning and put something temporary in place that became permanent,” said ward 97 councillor, Andre Beetge.
“A short, dangerous hairpin onramp makes it impossible to achieve the desired speed to safely join into highway traffic.
While development in the northern suburbs has become an everyday event, the southern breadbin has, until recent years, remained largely forgotten. Clearly things are about to change as, while the airport may have relocated, the dig out port will undoubtedly link the southern suburbs to the inner city hub.
This is already evident in the popularity of the industrial area, an increase in demand for residential property and development – both that which is already in progress and future planning from lower Illovo into the Umkomaas area.
With increased urbanisation, the southern areas in particular are becoming more populated, and the city’s new integrated rapid transport system, with Isipingo as the southern interchange, is set to change the way of commuting, all of which remain reliant on a reliable and passable road infrastructure.
The recent upgrade of Kingsway to the amount of R55-million is a step in the right direction and there is great excitement that SANRAL has eventually decided to extend consideration to upgrade an intersection that is not only needed, but long overdue.
That proposed plans will include upgrades to surrounding municipal road infrastructure and while it could result in a traffic flow ‘shift’ along new routes, it will undoubtedly enhance the area and contribute to a more structured traffic flow.
The proposed interchange does align and accommodate for additional future expansion and while an upgrade of the Isipingo interchange remains under discussion, one hopes consideration will be extended towards completing a southern offramp from Dickens Road.
Amanzimtoti is certainly far from being a forgotten little South Coast town,” said Cllr Beetge.
One person who remains cautious about the reasons for the upgrade is Upper South Coast Anti-Toll Alliance chairman, Ted Holden.
“From past experience with the so-called independent consultants and not being able to trust SANRAL to be totally upfront with their reasons for this project, I have some misgivings about what they will reveal to the public.
A public open day will be held to provide interested and affected parties an opportunity to familiarise themselves with details of the upgrade
Will SANRAL hide where they intend to place the future e-toll gadgets in the bridges? Are they going to raise the height of the Isipingo bridge as they did at Moss Kolnik, to allow for higher dump trucks to pass under with illminite to be mined from the beach sands at Xolobeni?,” questioned Ted, refering to the Xolobeni saga, which dates back several years and involves the proposed open-cast mining of titanium in the Amadiba traditional area by Australian company Mineral Commodities.
Ted said there does not seem to be a long-term strategy to build a super highway to take trucks off Durban South roads and questioned if SANRAL will continue to overload municipal roads to handle extra traffic for the new port.
“Is the activity on these two interchanges to provide easy access for trucks from the south to the port?” He is also concerned about rumours of making the old Clairwood race course at Mobeni a truck depot, much to the chagrin of local residents.
“SANRAL has continued with its dirty tricks, by promising no tolling on the N2 in the immediate future,” said Ted. “This has not stopped them, however from starting construction plans of the N2 toll road and the first signs are clear with these basic assessment projects.
SANRAL was given the go-ahead by the minister of environment when she passed the EIA. She wrongly and illegally did not adhere to the most fundamental and most important requirement of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), which needed her to take into account the effect of tolling on the public. She was coerced into claiming that it was outside her mandate.
As such, the industry’s court case should have ignored SANRAL’s promise and insisted she take the 7,500 objections against tolling into consideration and kicked the EIA into touch.
She should have taken notice that the EIA clearly stated ‘The N2 Wild Coast Toll Road’.”
A public open day will be held to provide interested and affected parties an opportunity to familiarise themselves with details of the upgrade of the existing Adams Road interchange on Thursday, 29 October at Lords and Legends from 3.30pm to 7.30pm.
Interested and affected parties can also contact Julian Drew via post at PO Box 32097, Braamfontein, 2017, or call 011-487-0266, fax 086-540-0602 or email juliand@nma.org.za.
