May 2, 2002
By Lucille Davie
SANDTON drivers, whose patience has been tested by road works for the past two months, will be pleased to learn that construction ends in July, giving the area much-improved traffic flow.
The construction is in preparation for the World Summit for Sustainable Development, happening in and around Sandton over August and September, when 65 000 foreign delegates are expected to flood the area around the Sandton Convention Centre.
"These road works are crucial to the success of the Summit, and in the long term they will also alleviate traffic flow problems in the Sandton residential and business district," says the managing director of the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), Mavela Dlamini.
Sandton, which not long ago was a peri-urban area dotted with smallholdings, has grown too rapidly for its own roads infrastructure, and traffic snarl-ups are now a daily occurrence.
The City of Johannesburg and the JRA have jointly contributed R56-million to the upgrade project. The provincial transport agency Gautrans has also put up R6-million for the upgrade of the M1 motorway, with an additional R5-million coming from developers in the area.
This R61-million injection into Sandton is "seen as one of the main pillars of the Jo'burg 2030 strategy which calls for the reinforcement of economic infrastructure that will lead to a sustainable urban environment", says Dlamini. It also creates a basis for Johannesburg to be "truly internationally competitive" as a host for future events.
The work includes road construction, removal and replacement of traffic islands; resurfacing of roads, upgrading of traffic signs and road markings.
The maintenance projects have been divided into projects to the north and south of the city. Projects in the north include Grayston Drive, Katherine Street, the M1 motorway, Main Road, Oxford Road, Rivonia Road and Sandton Drive.
Projects in the south include Booysens Reserve Road, Mahalafele Street, Nasrec Road, Rand Show Road and the Soweto highway.
The road works in Sandton include:
- Doubling of Rivonia Road between Central Road and Melville Road.
- Addition of a 3rd southbound land on Rivonia Road between South Road and Grayston Road.
- Addition of a third lane both east and westbound of Katherine Street between Grayston Drive and Pretoria Road.
- Auxiliary lanes north and southbound on M1 Motorway between Grayston and Marlboro Interchanges.
- Widening of William Nicol Drive northbound to four lanes between Republic Road and Sandton Drive and the upgrading of the William Nicol Drive/Republic Road intersection.
- Introduction of a third lane on William Nicol northbound between Republic and Peter Place by restripping the hard shoulder.
- Upgrading of the Katherine/West Streets and the Katherine/Pretoria Avenue intersections.
- Implementation of a one-way system along Daisy and Linden Roads.
- Doubling of Republic Road between Woodlands and Garden Roads to two lanes per direction.
- Upgrading of the Rivonia/Sandton Drive and Rivonia/Empire Place intersections.
- Upgrading of the Rivonia/5th Avenue and Rivonia/5th Avenue/Johan Street intersections.
- Upgrading of the Grayston/Benmore/West Road intersection.
- Upgrading of the Grayston/Sandton Drive intersection.
The JRA says there will be no road closures during construction, but only partial lane closures.
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