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Richards Bay truck backlog caused by offloading delays at port terminal

The congestion caused chaos on the Harbour Arterial on Wednesday morning, worsening throughout the day, with trucks lining the John Ross come evening

September 9, 2021
Gugu Myeni 2 minutes read
Trucks can be seen coming in and out of the port, with some attempting to bypass the traffic backlog Photo: Dave Savides

POWER outages caused by recent rain have been cited as the reason for congestion at the Transnet Port Terminal in Richards Bay.

In a communique issued to stakeholders, Transnet said these power dips have resulted in delays in the offloading of trucks, leading to a major backlog on the city’s roads.

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The congestion caused chaos on the Harbour Arterial on Wednesday morning, with the backlog of trucks stretching from the Alton intersection on the John Ross Highway, down Alumina Allee, through to the Carbonode Cell intersection in Alton.

They later appeared to have been redirected onto the John Ross Highway, lining up on a single lane towards Empangeni.

The terminal says it has resolved to temporarily allocate an open space for the trucks to bring in an average of 50 at a time into the port in order to clear congestion on the public roads.

The Transnet stakeholder statement reads as follows:
‘The Port of Richards Bay has been experiencing large influx of RMTs and have had delays in offloading. This is due to extreme weather conditions, rain which caused some power dips in the Port. During these times we were unable to bring trucks in the stockpiling areas to defend against the incidents, risk of contamination and ultimate cargo losses, among other risks. In order to mitigate against these risks as well as to ease up the RMTs on the public roads, the terminal has put the following mitigations in place:
1. A temporary open area has been allocated to bring an average of 50 RMTs at a time, as an additional staging area. This will allow for ease up of RMTs from the public roads by bringing them into the port space. The area will be used as a means of control of additional overflow of RMTs into the Port.
2. Additional gangs have also been brought in to ease up congestion and manage it customer by customer.
Thank you for your understanding due to circumstances beyond TPT’s control, and your patience as the terminal is putting these mitigations in place.’
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September 9, 2021
Gugu Myeni 2 minutes read

Tamlyn Jolly

With a background in publishing in the UK, Tamlyn has been in the news industry since 2013, working her way up from journalist to sub-editor. She holds a diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism. Tamlyn has a passion for hard environmental news, and has covered many such stories during her time at the Zululand Observer. She is passionate about the written word and helping others polish their skill.
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