Toll fears drive united front against Adams upgrade

Members and supporters of the Upper South Coast Anti-Toll Alliance (USCATA) have united behind chairman, Ted Holden’s submission to NMA Effective Social Strategists to raise concerns about the Adams Road interchange and its possible relation to the tolling of Upper South Coast roads.

Read about the planned upgrade here

The deadline for submissions from interested and affected parties closed at noon on Monday, 9 November.

Ted’s concerns regarding the Adam’s Road interchange proposal included:

• A lack of appropriate and acceptable public participation. “None of the reported 100 adverts supposedly placed in Toti were noticed or seen,” he said in explanation. “Only 30 days to respond to one isolated meeting at Lords and Legends, and that was held at the same time as a regular night market, instead of at Toti Civic Centre. The consultant’s database is not kept relevant. Not a single resident along Lewis Drive has been approached concerning how they will tolerate a four-lane highway running past their gate.”
• The proposal only satisfies SANRAL’s continued attempts to expect residents and commuters of Toti and the Upper South Coast to finance the construction of the N2 Wild Coast toll road.
• No future considerations are being given to the serious and short-term decision, taken many years ago, to place a national road and even before that, a railway, right through the middle of Amanzimtoti and other towns on the Upper South Coast. “This fragmentation has especially affected Amanzimtoti, which has suffered this injustice without respite and has to currently tolerate and work around a dysfunctional CBD,” said Ted.
• Existing north-south corridors continue to receive attention, but there is an equal, or greater, need for east-west corridors to ensure shared facilities for all our people here and along the Upper South Coast.
• Heavy traffic and rail traffic continue to expose ordinary residents and commuters to misery, accidents, delays, frustration and pollution along all routes through Durban South and the Upper South Coast.
• Access for trucks and rail traffic to the proposed dig-out port, which is claimed to be vital and strategically necessary, is not being taken into consideration. “All of us are expecting a plan for an integrated and publicly accepted road and rail network, and commuter corridors before any changes will be considered, especially not any seemingly ad-hoc changes done in isolation that suit only one party or concern.”
• Rising sea levels have not been considered and form no part of the plans. “The river level at the N2 bridge is about nine metres above mean sea level, Commercial Road and the parking area are only 10 metres above sea level, notwithstanding the ongoing erosion of the railway line on the south side of the Amanzimtoti River mouth.

Moving the railway line away from the coastline at Kingsburgh, through Warner Beach, Winklespruit and Illovo will free prime beach estate, adding to the attraction and considerable development potential to meet the needs for property in this area with the advent of the dig–out port.

Moving the Durban airport has brought relief from noise and air pollution to all south of Durban, particularly in Athlone Park and Amanzimtoti. Why not move the N2 and railway line west?

SANRAL is using a ‘promise’ they don’t intend to keep in claiming they will “not be going to toll the N2 road in the immediate future”. This has resulted in the withdrawal by local industries of their High Court case against the minster of environment, who was incorrectly and wrongly persuaded to not take tolling into consideration when passing the N2 Wild Coast toll road EIA.

Read more: ‘Adams N2 upgrade is for future toll road‘

SANRAL will toll the road because funding from other sources will not be made available, due to other priorities. We are not that naive when we are told the Adams Road interchange has nothing to do with tolling,” said Ted, who questioned where the funding for the upgrade will come from.

SANRAL is in talks with eThekweni Municipality to share costs, similar to the Umgeni interchange.

“The city has had a number of consultations with SANRAL regarding upgrading interchanges and the widening of the N2,” said eThekwini head of communications, Tozi Mthethwa.

“Sanral is funding the upgrades. The city does contribute to some of the interchanges based on the utilisation of them by city traffic.”

• The Minister of Transport has not given due consideration of a ‘White Paper’ prepared by city planning experts, who recommended that city management should have complete autonomy over all road and rail traffic corridors within their metropolitan area and in particular to their having to answer to their ratepayers for any infrastructure commitments.
• The time line poster showing the plans for completing the N2 Wild Coast toll road clearly shows where the Adams Road interchange fits into the overall programme. “How can we be expected to believe it is not part of SANRAL’s determination to toll us here in Amanzimtoti?
• Included in the layout sketch presented by the consultants are red dots on the on and offramps for the interchange. “When challenging the consultants that these show the placing of toll plazas, we are expected to believe their inclusion was a mistake. We do not accept this explanation,” said Ted.

No alternatives were presented for consideration, however last week the Sun published Ted’s alternate proposal of an integrated six-lane, 1,5km highway over the Toti valley and a railway station on the next level down and lots of clearance at ground level for east-west corridors joining the Toti CBD.