Durban - Despite legal challenges to stop the construction of the controversial N2 Wild Coast toll road, the process of awarding tenders for two multibillion-rand bridges planned for the freeway will begin in June.
Nazir Alli, chief executive of the South African National Roads Agency Limited, told a Durban business meeting on Wednesday that pre-qualification applications from construction firms interested in building the bridges over the Msikaba and Mtentu Rivers between Port Edward and Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape would close next week, with the final tender award processes to start in June.
The combined cost of the two bridges will be R3.5 billion.
The controversial greenfields road between Port Edward and Port St Johns - part of a planned highway to link Durban with East London, and against which court challenges are pending - got the green light from the Department of Environmental Affairs in 2010.
Also read: Sparks fly over N2 toll road project
The approval was met with fierce opposition from communities living alongside the proposed new route. They questioned the legality and the Environmental Impact Assessment process behind the department’s decision.
Cape Town lawyer Cormac Cullinan, who is acting for the communities, said on Wednesday that not only was the dispute complex, but it would take years to settle.
“This litigation is a long way from being over,” he said. “If Sanral goes ahead with its decision to construct the bridges, we will get an interdict to prevent them from doing that. The companies that are entering the tender award process are doing so at enormous risk.”
But Alli was adamant the project would go ahead, particularly in light of proposed economic benefits for people looking for a “decent life”.
He added that the upgrade on the existing section of the road between Port St Johns and Mthatha was well advanced.
Due to budget cuts, funding for upgrades on the link between Mthatha and the Fish River would most likely be sought from the private sector, Ali said.
The National Treasury allocated more than R13 billion to the agency in its budget for the 2016/17 financial year - up from R12 billion the year before. Maintenance backlogs on the 750 000km national road network totalled R197 billion, according to Alli.
The maintenance of 21 403km of this falls under the control of Sanral, with cross-subsidisation from tolled routes for upgrades on non-tolled routes not legally permissible.
Also read: 'Sanral stole my name' - N2 villager
Alli said while the Wild Coast route had yet to be declared an official toll road, it was a “foregone conclusion” that road users would foot the bill for the project through tolling.
He declined to confirm the proposed tolling points.
A plan to build tolls close to Durban for this purpose fell flat two years ago after a public outcry resulted in an out-of-court settlement in which Sanral agreed that no further toll points would be built in KwaZulu-Natal in the “foreseeable future”.
At the meeting yesterday, Alli urged KwaZulu-Natal motorists to register for e-tags.
All tolling booths - in addition to the “shesha” lanes - in the province, he said, were now “live” on the e-toll system.
The Mariannhill and Oribi toll plazas went live in December 2015 and the North Coast booths went live earlier in 2016.
He said the ultimate plan was to remove all personnel from the booths and re-train them for employment elsewhere in the agency.
The Mercury