R740-million worth of road upgrades announced for Eastern Cape in next few months

The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has announced that it is investing R740 million over the “next few months” into six major road maintenance projects in the Kou-Kamma Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape.

The scope of work entails the construction of surface sealing, localised surface repairs where necessary, crack sealing, and edge break repairs.

Upgrades to N2 and R62

The road infrastructure upgrades covered under the R740 million include two “periodic maintenance” projects on the N2 in addition to three “special maintenance” projects on the R62.

On the N2, the upgrades will take place from Bloukrans River Bridge to Storms River Village, and from Storms River Village to Witelsbos, with R80 million and R50 million allocated to these jobs, respectively.

The tender for the first project is still in the evaluation stage, while the tender for the latter is already active and scheduled to close in March 2024.

On the R62, the roadworks will be carried out between the border of the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces, between Louterwater and Joubertina, and between Joubertina and Kareedouw.

The border road upgrade is expected to start in June and involve over 30 Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises which will create in excess of 200 job opportunities.

The Joubertina-to-Kareedouw project will kick off shortly thereafter, and benefit over 35 SMMEs and provide 250 employment opportunities.

The tender for the Louterwater-to-Joubertina upgrade is still in the design stage.

All the SMMEs that will be involved in these important road construction projects are required to undergo training that will enhance their business acumen and tendering skills, said Sanral South Region transformation unit’s Zenande Mpondo.

“All SMMEs will be required to undertake assessment and class activities during the training, and they will have to demonstrate competence to be awarded the unit standard,” said Mpondo.

“The unit standards are from the National Certificate: Construction Contracting NQF 2. These unit standards are a skills programme that will have a credit value towards the National Certificate.”