SANRAL - GFIP

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Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project



The Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) is the single largest road project to be undertaken by the South African government in over 20 years, and was launched by South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) in 2006 to create a better road and freeway network in Gauteng.

As the economic heart of South

Africa, Gauteng has seen a boom of

housing, commercial, and industrial

property development over the last ten

years. The resulting increase in traffic

means that existing infrastructures are

now over capacity, and the road and

freeway networks no longer sufficient to

meet Gauteng's traffic demands. This has

consequences — from greater travel times,

to increased fuel consumption, to higher

vehicle emissions, to a lower level of

profitability for developments in the

province.

The Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project

(GFIP) was conceived by South African

National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) in

order to provide a solution to these

problems. The project is currently

underway, and aims to upgrade the

infrastructural network in Gauteng and

implement new freeways towards an

ultimate goal of a 560km network,

reducing traffic jams and travel times in the

province. Set to inject around 29 billion

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rand into the South African economy, and

create around 30,000 direct jobs over the

course of the project, GFIP will be

contributing to widened economic and

social development opportunities in

Gauteng.

While planning GFIP, SANRAL took several

alternative transport methods into

consideration, and strived to create links

with the Gautrain, Metrorail and Bus Rapid

Transport to provide the population with

more choice in term of public transport

and car-pooling. The aim of this is to

alleviate congestion, reduce emissions, and

improve motorists' road experience by

taking a more streamlined approach to

transportation. The roads and freeways

affected by the project will also enjoy

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS),

including Variable Management Signs

(VMS), Incident Management Services (IMS),

and CCTV cameras. The VMS provide

innovative traffic management services and

allow for safer, coordinated transport

networks, and have already been installed

during the first phase of the project. IMS

and CCTV allow SANRAL to optimise road

capacity, dispatch emergency services

more efficiently, and warn motorists of

congestion more effectively. Traffic

information is updated live on SANRAL's

traffic website, giving road users access to

incident alerts, construction updates,

traffic speeds, and other travel information.

Phase one of GFIP was planned before

South Africa received confirmation that

their 2010 World Cup soccer bid had been

successful, and while the phase was not

completed in time for the event, significant

effort was made to ensure that most of the

road widening and construction work was

completed in time to help Gauteng cope

with the additional tourism and resulting

traffic.

“There are about one million vehicles using

Gauteng's freeways every day and we

needed to ensure that traffic flowed safely

and contractors were not in harm's way,”

explained GFIP manager Alex Van Niekerk,

speaking to Engineering News. This led to

the bulk of the manual work being carried

out overnight, when traffic was less dense.

The phase was toll-funded, and resulted in

185km of freeway being upgraded or

constructed to connect inner and outer ring

roads as well as improving access to

southern and western Gauteng settlements.

Among the 34 interchanges that saw

considerable upgrades were the Allendale,

Rivonia, William Nicol, Gilloolys and Elands

interchanges.

Of course, there are large costs associated

with such a large project. Through SANRAL,

the South African Department of Transport

(DoT) will be investing a total of around 55

billion rand into GFIP — 12 billion rand for

the first phase, 20 billion rand for the

second, and 23 billion and for the third and

final phase.

Despite this investment, the project still

requires funding from e-tolls in order to

run. The DoT believes SANRAL were

thorough in their investigation of

alternative funding options, and is in

Phase one of GFIP was planned before South Africa received confirmation that their 2010 World Cup soccer bid had been successful, and while the phase was not completed in time for the event, significant effort was made to ensure that most of the road widening and construction work was completed in time to help Gauteng cope with the additional tourism and resulting traffic.

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accordance with their conclusion that e-tolling

was the only realistic way to proceed. Despite

this, the e-tolling mechanism used to fund the

project has still been the subject of a lot of

dispute. Phase two of GFIP, also to be toll-funded,

is currently on hold due to this, and contracts will

not be awarded until the government has reached

a decision on how to proceed with the

implementation of the e-tolls. There are concerns

that the tolling system has caused suburbs and

by-roads to be congested by road users attempting

to avoid paying, as well as fears that businesses will

pass on the additional expenses to customers,

pushing up the cost of groceries and causing

additional financial struggles for the poor. The

burden this could place on other government

sectors means that much discussion is required

before involved parties can come to a fair

compromise.

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SANRAL - GFIP