As SANRAL searches for a new CEO to take over from the well-respected Nazir Alli, Enterprise Africa takes a look at some of the major projects that any potential candidates will have to pick up straight away. This truly is a company with a lot happening and it looks like the future will only bring more busy times.
South Africa’s 52 million people need to move efficiently around the country which spans 1,219,090km2 and while flying is often the quickest way between east and west and trains are easiest in the bustling metropolitan cities, sometimes there is no beating the car or bus. Also, when it comes to the movement of goods, often there is no alternative to road transport.
South Africa, which is more than three times the size of Germany, measures roughly 1,600km from north to south, and roughly the same from east to west.Obviously, movingaround this vast expanse of land by road is difficult – especially when it comes to the rural and mountainous regions. The road network is made up of 18 major highways which are interconnected by hundreds of smaller but equally busy routes.
The responsibility for maintenance, upkeep and management of these roads falls to SANRAL (South African National Roads Agency Ltd) and while much is written and said about this government owned organisation which was formed in 1998, there is one common theme in all the discussion and that is that SANRAL always stimulates economic activity in the areas that it operates.
Right now, the company is going through an uncertain period after current CEO, Nazir Alli announced his retirement for the end of August 2015; yet here we are in October with no new CEO and uncertainty about his successor.
Alli has been in charge of SANRAL since its inception and has been a key driver behind the growth of the organisation moving from an entity with just 7,200km of road, to a top national employer managing 21,403km currently, which is expected to grow to 35,000km in the future. The roads and other related infrastructure that have been built by SANRAL under his leadership are of outstanding quality and have won numerous global awards in engineering excellence.
“His last day in the office will be determined by the minister of transport, in consultation with SANRAL’s board, subsequent to the appointment of the new CEO and a hand-over period,” said SANRAL Board Chair Roshan Morar.
“He has been at the forefront of modernising South Africa’s national road network to world class standards for 17 years, and his impeccable track record speaks for itself.
”Although it is a challenge to replace someone of Nazir’s stature, we would like him to enjoy spending time with his family after his selfless service to our country.”
However, even with the retirement of Alli, life goes on and SANRAL currently have a number of major projects underway which will undoubtedly demand the attention of the new CEO as soon as he/she starts in what will be a demanding role.
HUGUENOT TUNNEL
One project of significance is theWestern Cape’s Huguenot Tunnel which, after years of increased traffic flow, now needs expansion to cope with ever-growing demand. It is now thought that anortherly bore would be needed to allow for a dual carriageway.
“The tunnel is one of the Western Cape’s most vital economic assets and it is SANRAL’s mandate to maintain the tunnel in such a state that it functions optimally and in the best interest of road users,” SANRAL’s Western Cape Project Manager, Tiago Massingue said in a recent release.
“We don’t want to sound melodramatic but it is important for the public and the authorities to know the risks we face if works on the tunnel are delayed or do not proceed.
It is thought that work on the tunnel could take up to eight months and during that time, no traffic would be allowed through, creating a problem for the public.
“To reroute traffic over the Du Toitskloof Pass for such a long period is just not a viable option. Scaffolding will have to be erected to carry out the work and a stop-go control is not recommended, as it would increase the risk of accidents.
“The only viable option is to construct the north bore and once it has been completed, to divert traffic to the new tunnel. The existing south bore systems can then be improved,” Massingue explained.
Along with the problems created by closing the existing tunnel, there has also been problems with public relations for SANRAL after it was suggested that the upgrades to the Huguenot Tunnel would be paid for by the tolls collected on the proposed N1/N2 Winelands Toll Road. There was also suggestions that current toll fees would rise in order to raise funds for the upgrades to the tunnel – something which has not been denied by SANRAL.
N1/N2 WINELANDS TOLL ROAD
SANRAL has proposed a toll road running from along the N1 and N2, with the N2 portion stretching from the R300 to Bot River. The multimillion rand project was put on hold after the Western Cape high court granted an interim interdict in May last year and ever since, there has been much to and fro with the City of Cape Town not keen on the idea of tolls and SANRAL firm in its stance that the road will only benefit the agricultural community in the Western Cape.
“While the City of Cape Town in the past was at pains to point out what it would cost road-users to travel on the planned toll road roads, tariffs had not been set and whatever numbers are bandied about are pure speculation. The Minister of Transport will set the final toll tariffs,” Nazir Alli said in a statement.
“Financing of the N1/N2 upgrades and subsequent maintenance can only be done through tolling as these are now declared toll roads,” he added.
He also claimed that there was a lot of “misunderstanding and misinformation” about the proposed N1/N2 Winelands Improvement Project.
Kobus van der Walt, SANRAL’s Regional Manager in the Western Cape, said SANRAL very much supports the City of Cape Town’s push towards a leading public transport system but such a system does not yet exist and for now, the freeway system will have to provide this service. “Traffic flows in and out of the city will be vastly improved over sections as there will be three lanes instead of the current two on the N1 and N2, in both directions,” he said. “The new planned interchanges will help to ease traffic congestion at on-and-off ramps on to the freeways, and SANRAL has offered to assist the City and the Western Cape Government to repair the surfaces of some secondary roads affected by traffic deviating around toll plazas.”
In one of the most recent upgrades in the saga, SANRAL itself has announced that it has solid plans in place to ensure the road is a toll road and that the cost of the project will total R10 billion.
Justifying the need to toll the road, van der Walt told the media: “The notion that SANRAL should fund this project from its own resources is uninformed. This year we received a total allocation of R12.5 billion to look after the entire national road network. Clearly we cannot take all of it to do one project in one province.”
N2 HIGHWAY
SANRAL is not only working on major projects in the Western Cape; there are also a number of big things happening in the Eastern Cape, one of which is a R900 million upgrade to the N2 highway.
The upgrades will take place between Grahamstown and the Fish River Pass, on a 47km stretch of road. It is expected that the work will take around six years and the scope of the job includesgeometric improvements to portions of the national road that traverses mountainous terrain and also the addition of climbing lanes to steep sections of the road to improve the level of surface.
SANRAL said in a statement that the project would also see improvements made to parts of the national network between Port Elizabeth and East London.
“The existing road was built in the 1960s and currently does not meet SANRAL’s desired alignment and safety standards. An increase in traffic volumes, particularly heavy vehicles, over the past ten years has prompted the need for this road upgrade,” explained SANRAL Southern Region Project Manager, Steven Robertson.
“SANRAL aims to improve sight distance for drivers in order to reduce road accidents and also reduce vehicle operating costs. The new road will also ensure travel time-savings for vehicle operators, once completed,” he said.
This will be a difficult project for SANRAL and will require a lot of innovation and ingenuity. Some areas need rock blasting and some regions require special bypassing to allow for the road to be widened. SANRAL claims this project will create 360 jobs and it is committed to implementing a training and employment programme for rural communities along the route.
Also in the Eastern Cape, Nazir Alli announced that 23% of the provinces 4544 km of road (the most road in any province) would receive attention from SANRAL this year. He said that the maintenance would help to make the province more attractive to foreign investors. It is reported that a total of 2.2 billion Rand will be spent on the N2, N6, R61, R63, R65 and R67 this year.
One piece of welcome news regarding the N2 came last year when SANRAL announced that its work on the Ballito Interchange in Durban had been completed after long delays and earlier this year, in July, the company also announced that upgrades to the Umgeni Interchange had been completed.
In Ballito, SANRAL partnered with infrastructure consultants, SMEC, who advised on the construction of both the new loop ramp and also the new bridge that could accommodate double loop ramps underneath it, as well as the additional lanes on the cross road on top.
At Umgeni, where SANRAL has been building new ramps and bridges, work has been widely praised and even awarded. The Concrete Society of Southern Africa chose the Umgeni Road interchange as the winner of the prestigious Fulton Award in the category for civil engineering structures over R100m in value.
“We hope that the generations to come will enjoy the long-term benefits of this remarkable interchange and we are proud of the legacy we are leaving behind in the form of a truly iconic structure,” said Logashri Sewnarain, SANRAL’s Eastern Region manager.
TOP EMPLOYER
A recent highlight for the company in an HR focus was receiving certification from the Top Employers Institute, a Dutch-based organisation that globally certifies excellence in the conditions that employers create for their people.
SANRAL was given the certification in 2015 and the Top Employer Institute said: “SANRAL provides exceptional employee conditions, nurtures and develops talent throughout all levels of the organisation and has demonstrated its leadership status in the HR environment, always striving to optimise its employment practices and to develop its employees.”
Certification is only awarded to the best employers around the world: companies that demonstrate the highest standards of employee offerings.
Particular highlights that contributed to the certification included graduate development programmes and traineeship, internship programmes and job rotation programmes, career progression opportunities, substantial benefits and other well-being programs.
This award will come as an important booster for the company that has, especially in the Western Cape, had a turbulent time recently. When looking after the country’s so called ‘economic arteries’, you need a group of employees who are happy and well catered for and it looks as though SANRAL has managed to achieve this.