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© 2001 FleetWatch magazine and FleetWatch On-Line.
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| N3TC - Four lane milestone |
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Gauteng and the KwaZulu-Natal coast are now linked with a four-lane highway for the entire route. A notable milestone for the N3TC - the concessionaire for the construction and maintenance of the 418 km stretch of the N3 between Heidelberg and Cedara.
This comes about after a 26-month aggressive construction programme in the De Hoek area, north of the Vaal, that includes 40.9 kilometers of new southbound carriage way and 41 kilometers of rehabilitation and geometric improvement to the existing carriage way and a 10,2km section of divided dual carriage way on a completely new alignment.
Included in this section, is the construction of the new De Hoek Toll Plaza (with ten lanes, four of which are reversible). The new plaza went 'live' during the 2001 festive season.
According to N3TC, the latest developments will eliminate one hour off the traveling time to KwaZulu-Natal from Gauteng.
The value of construction work north of the Vaal River is R408-million. This is 64% of the total of R643-million that will be spent on construction improvements to the N3 in the first 36 months of the 30 year Concession contract. The N3TC is committed to a programme of capital improvements to the route to a total of R3,5 billion during the Concession period.
The new De Hoek plaza houses modem operational systems, facilities that will improve efficiency of operations for the road users. It is intended that the equipment and systems utilised at De Hoek will be rolled out in upgrading the other toll plazas on the N3 over the next year and making provision for the introduction of electronic toll collection in due course.
Safety improvements include a new GSM based SOS roadside phone system for the entire route N3 using the Vodacom 147 emergency number. In addition to this, the N3TC are also implementing a new computerised incident management system which will allow for improved and speedy management of incidents and their prevention.
Other major improvements to the N3, already completed by N3TC include: widening the Harrismith by-pass from four to two 4 lanes and surface improvements to the N3 in the following areas:
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