The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (Sanral) announced that the national road network is ready for the festive season load, as traffic volumes are set to increase on all major routes across the country.
Sanral manages less than five percent of the country’s road network but carries up to 80% of all long-distance traffic.
It said the increase in travellers over the festive season means road authorities will deploy significantly more resources to monitor and assist with the safe passage of massive volumes of traffic to holiday destinations before Christmas and on the return journey.
Sanral spokesperson, Vusi Mona said the high traffic volumes are expected from Friday.
“We appeal to motorists to obey the law, respect all road users – including pedestrians – drive with extreme caution, take a break every two hours or 200km, and avoid driving at night,” Mona said.
He said safety on the country’s national road network was a high priority for Sanral and the South African government.
“Road safety is one of Sanral’s strategic pillars and while the national roads agency does not operate in the law enforcement space, we work with all relevant authorities to improve road safety across the national road network, with a focus on engineering, enforcement and education,” Mona said.
He stated all construction on national roads would end on Friday, meaning that most of the key routes around the country would be open and free-flowing. Routine Road Maintenance teams would, however, remain on standby during the holiday period to ensure they can respond to any incidents.
Mona explained that location marker boards (or blue marker boards) are located every 200 metres on national routes. These boards contain the name of the route, i.e. N1, N2, N3, N7 and the particular section of the road, the direction of travel and the kilometre distance.
“In case of any incident, please find the closest board and note the details so that the operator at the communication centre is able to direct a response team to an accurate location,” said Mona.
The Freeway Management System (FMS) monitors more than 500km of the busiest freeways across the country, particularly in the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. From these multi-modal operations centres, operators can identify an incident and dispatch the relevant response teams in under three minutes.
As a technology-driven project, the FMS aims to incorporate new, state-of-the-art technologies. These include:
- An upgrade of the overall Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS);
- Improved incident detection through Automated Incident Detection (AID);
- Improved communications systems with key stakeholders;
- Enhancements using AI features;
- Thermal camera incorporation into the Transport Management Centre operations.
Some of the national routes with the most traffic during December include:
- N2 North Coast – Durban to Tongaat
- N2 South Coast – Durban to Winkelspruit
- N4 East – Pretoria to Nelspruit
- N1 North – Pretoria to Polokwane
- N3 South – Johannesburg to Durban
- N4 West – Pretoria to Brits
- N1 South – Johannesburg to Bloemfontein to Cape Town
- N7 North – Cape Namibia Route
- N2 through Nelson Mandela Bay
- R61 East and West of Mthatha
- N6 – East London to Kei Road
- N10 – South of Cradock
- R63 East of Qonce (King William’s Town)
- N9 – Aberdeen to Graaff-Reinet
Traffic volumes are also expected to be high on the major routes connecting neighbouring states such as Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Mona urged motorists to enjoy Sanral’s road safety activities at strategic points along the national road network.
“Sanral is collaborating with other roads authorities and will be hosting several road safety activations. These events promote engagement with motorists when they stop at fuel stations along their journeys. Sanral will distribute road safety education pamphlets and other goodies. We will offer travellers water to stay hydrated and we will also provide entertainment for children,” he said.
“Sanral’s all-year-round road safety campaign, Road Safety One, is centred on every individual taking personal responsibility for road safety, by doing just one thing that could save a life. This includes deciding to not drink and drive, using pedestrian facilities to safely cross the road, using the rest and service sites to take regular breaks on long-distance journeys or wearing reflective clothing when walking or cycling at night,” said Mona.
Sanral further thanked the many law enforcement officers, emergency medical teams, rescue services and all other service providers who will be on duty on all the busy routes this holiday and wishes all road users a safe, blessed and prosperous festive season.
Emergency numbers are posted on Sanral signage along the national road network, but the 10111 and 10177 numbers can be used for all emergencies.
IOL