By Janine du Plessis
Janine du Plessis reports on the road Pretoria cannot do without; the road which links us to Johannesburg and the south; the road we love to hate... the Ben Schoeman highway.
Tens of thousands of motorists travel on it every week, often stuck in traffic jams for hours. On average, two people die on it every month.
Fifteen years ago, about 50 000 cars passed the Olifantsfontein exit on the N1 each day. By last year, the number had swollen to 120 000.
And this is not even the busiest stretch.
That stretch, according to data administrator Henk Botha of Mikros Traffic Monitoring, is between the Buccleuch interchange and Allandale Road.
"On average there is an average daily traffic of 155 000 vehicles. This is because there are seven lanes converging into three from the M1, N3 and N1 highways."
Botha says the numbers vary greatly from Midrand to Pretoria, but on average 70 000 vehicles use the highway near Eeufees Road and 4 500 vehicles pass in one hour (in one lane) during the day outside peak hours.
Trucks are banned from the highway during peak hour traffic.
The traffic is counted at five Mikros counting stations between the Buccleuch interchange and Pretoria.
The five stations are part of a broader counting network of thousands of stations across the country.
These belong to both the Department of Transport, which manages the stretch of highway from the Brakfontein (N1/N14) interchange up to Potgieter Street and the South African National Roads Agency (Sanra), which manages the rest.
Tar is cut from a section of the road, and wires are set in a circular pattern and attached to a metal box which collects the data.
On the Jean Avenue bridge there is a "weigh-in-motion" station where passing vehicles are weighed as well as counted.
Traffic in both directions on the highway starts at around 5am. By 6am the road is already very busy and it stays that way until the rush hour ends at about 9am.
"It peaks but the highway stays very busy throughout the day," says Botha.
"Morning peaks are shorter than the afternoons. This might be because people have to be at work more or less the same time in the mornings but leave from work at different times between 4pm and 6pm in the afternoon."
On weekdays, the number of cars on the highway hits a peak of around 5 300 cars an hour in the mornings and 6 300 in the afternoons.
In Centurion, the sinkhole and the deviation around it have made traffic conditions worse - and the repairs are not likely to be completed before September, says Alfred Nhlapo of the Department of Transport.
Motorists had just gotten used to the "rumble strips" which slowed traffic around the sinkhole deviation when the strips were taken away.
Chief engineer at the Gauteng roads department Riaan Venter says the strips were removed after nearby residents complained of the noise created by cars going over them.
"At the moment tenders have been closed for contractors to do the sinkhole repairs and we are assessing them," Venter says.
And it seems more trouble is on the way for motorists with the planned construction of the R15-billion Waterfall City development between the Woodmead Drive off-ramp and Allandale Road.
Average vehicle traffic around the area is already 120 000 a day, says Botha, and the development is expected to bring a further 6 000 vehicles onto the highway.
More than 25 000 apartments and houses are to be built, with a shopping centre, a school, a clinic, retirement villages and a hotel among other amenities.
Alex van Niekerk, manager of tolls and traffic for the northern region of Sanra, says: "Any new development generates additional traffic and in an already congested network will worsen the problem.
"However, the roads authorities involved evaluate these impacts and require improvements to the road network by the developer in order to mitigate some of the impact.
"The developer is currently involved in a process with the applicable roads authority to determine what needs to be implemented."
Many motorists are looking to the Gautrain to relieve some of the congestion. The train, expected to be used for 300 000 trips a day, is to be ready in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
"It will alleviate a major part of the congestion," says Connie Nel, Sanra marketing manager.
"And we will encourage people to make use of it as the roads are deteriorating because of the high volumes of traffic on a daily basis."
Meanwhile, what are the alternatives?
Nhlapo says the PWV 9 highway, which is to link the Mabopane highway with the N1 near Main Road, has been planned but is not on any programme for construction.
He suggests the Old Johannesburg Road (R101) and Botha Avenue (M18) as alternative routes to the highway.
"Another option to help curb traffic congestion is to increase the occupancy rate of vehicles, such as park and rides and car pools," he suggests.
The Transport Department's section of the road costs about R60 000 a kilometre to maintain, says Nhlapo.
Sanra has a 24-hour repair team. "So when an accident happens or where a particular section needs immediate repairs we send them out," says Nel.
"When a bridge was damaged recently it was repaired and safe to travel on within 48 hours. We have routine maintenance teams on all our national roads. We deal with maintenance when it becomes necessary," he says.
One way to fund maintenance might be to set up toll gates, says Van Niekerk. He says Sanra is looking at tolling a portion of the highway.
"Various funding options for the improvement of the network are being considered and tolling is one of them."
But, he says, if tolls are set up, there will be no physical toll gates. "Tolls can be collected by means of an electronic system without slowing down the traffic."
Nhlapo says public transport and vehicles with a high occupancy will receive preference if tolls are set up.