Long-overdue Moloto Road upgrade begins

06/06/2016. R573 Moloto Road that is known for road fatalities will be upgraded in phases from the start of September. Picture: Masi Losi

06/06/2016. R573 Moloto Road that is known for road fatalities will be upgraded in phases from the start of September. Picture: Masi Losi

Published Jun 7, 2016

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Pretoria - Moloto Road, dubbed one of South Africa’s roads of death, is on the brink of a R3.7 billion makeover which will transform it into a road of hope.

Transport minister Dipuo Peters on Monday announced plans for the long-awaited upgrade of the notorious road, scheduled to begin in September.

“The road of death will become the road of hope once the work is completed,” Peters said during the sod-turning ceremony at the KwaMhlanga showground.

Peters said the upgrade was part of government efforts to prevent further fatal accidents on the route. The upgrade will cover at least 139km of the 160km stretch of Moloto Road.

Construction will commence in September and is scheduled to be completed in the next five to 10 years.

“The work will be completed in stages, with the most critical 25km section receiving priority attention,” she said.

The upgrade will include dual lanes and round-about circles at intersections. In addition to safer travel for the thousands of people from Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo who use the road daily, the project will benefit at least 5000 people in the small construction business sector as well as the labour force in general.

Also read: SA's 'road of death' to be upgraded

The 160km stretch of road runs through the three provinces and carries more than 150 000 commuters daily, most of them heading to and from work in Pretoria. It has been dubbed the road of death as a result of the high number of fatal accidents on the road over the years.

Statistics from the period of January 2012 to May 2014 showed that there 489 crashes on Moloto Road, resulting in 158 fatalities and 594 serious injuries.

Peters said: “If we can bring down the rate of accidents, we will demonstrate that we are indeed making progress in our broader efforts to improve road safety.”

The minister said the upgraded road had been designed to accommodate the needs of the community.

Safety needed to be ensured for the large number of children crossing the road on their way from home to school, she said. Critical attention was needed to the road because it carried the second biggest volume of traffic in the country after the N1.

Peters said Sanral had already started with road maintenance, which included pothole repairs, drain cleaning, trimming of foliage on the roadside, new road signs and lane markings.

Once completed, it is envisaged that the road will stimulate economic activity in the district, enable small farmers to bring produce to market and be used by tourists to visit game reserves in the three provinces.

Also read: E nforcement beefed up on deadly road

The new-look Moloto Road will form part of the Moloto Development Corridor, which is expected to attract huge investment in passenger rail to offer commuters safer, faster and more accessible connections between Mpumalanga and Gauteng.

“The start of this project to upgrade the road is a demonstration of how the government has listened to the views and concerns of residents and communities, and is taking action to respond to the issues.”

Moloto Road was incorporated into the Sanral network in 2015 and became part of the non-tolled portfolio.

In addition to the road upgrade, the government will spend more than R34 billion on the development of the rail corridor.

The department has already signed the project over to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, which subsequently opened a project implementation and management office at its Pretoria headquarters.

Moloto Road is one of the busiest and most accident-ridden roads in South Africa.

The road is used by an estimated 150 000 people daily travelling to work in Pretoria in more than 600 buses, most of them owned by Putco. The buses travel a high speeds along a narrow, potholed road.

In November 2013, 30 people were killed in an accident between a bus and a truck near Kwaggafontein. Two more people died a month later when a heavy goods truck collided with a delivery van.

A year later, the road claimed another life in a bus accident that left 42 people injured, eight of them seriously. These were in addition to many other accidents that occurred on the infamous road over the years.

Pretoria News

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