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SANRAL signs MOU with SAFCEC to prioritise small contractor development

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The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) is proud to announce a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the South African Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors (SAFCEC), that prioritises development of SMMEs in the road construction industry.

“In order to achieve meaningful transformation in this sector, we have to look beyond just meeting targets. To this end, our MOU with SAFCEC is geared to explore options and solutions that enables mentorship, development, capacity building and training of small contractors, giving them the skills and knowledge needed to execute road construction and maintenance projects,” explained Ismail Essa, SANRAL’s Transformation Head.

According to the MOU, SAFCEC seeks to improve knowledge and skills of small contractors, deliver on its transformation, incubation and empowerment commitments to its members, create value and forge relationships with small contractors in the construction sector.

SANRAL on the other hand is committed to the mentorship of small contractors to increase the number of participants, particularly Black-owned, across the value and supply chains of the road construction sub-sector of the construction industry. Furthermore, the roads agency seeks to promote fair competition, facilitate access to developmental opportunities and build lasting relationships that sees small contractors benefiting from direct development support.

Essa further explains that the training will be funded through SAFCES’s SETA funds, while SANRAL will provide work sites where interns can be placed after training, to complete the required practical experience.

SAFCEC will provide mentors to guide, develop and prepare small contractors to be able to tender on SANRAL projects, covering technical competence, finance, human resources, contractual matters and legislation.

Successfully completing this programme, will mean that the small contractor understands how to position their entity to attain a competitive edge, is able to submit best scoring, yet profitable tenders, can determine and assess risk and has improved strategic, technical and entrepreneural skills.

“Now, more than ever, we have to get this right. As SANRAL responds to the President’s call for infrastructure development to drive our country’s economic recovery post COVID-19, it is imperative that we widen the net of economic inclusion in the road construction industry. The success of our economic recovery initiatives will depend on capacitating as many contributors as possible to meaningfully participate in building this country’s infrastructure. We are ready and excited about playing our part. Together we will build South Africa, through better roads,” concluded Essa.

SANRAL Routine Road Maintenance project creates opportunities for Koster SMMEs

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As part of its pro-active response to deliver on the long-term vision of a national transport system that delivers a better South Africa for all, the South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) convened its flagship Taking SANRAL to the People stakeholder engagement session in Koster, North West Province, SANRAL uses these sessions to foster dialogue with small, micro, and medium enterprises (SMMEs), community members, and civil society.

Unpacking key  projects to SMMEs and local communities, Gertrude Soko, SANRAL’s project manager for Routine Road Maintenance (RRM) , said that these projects include RRM of national road R24 from Rustenburg to the Gauteng Province border, R52 from Koster to N4 Rustenburg, and the R30 from JB Marks Municipal Border to Olifantsnek.

“The high unemployment in South Africa exerts pressure on SANRAL to maximise the number of jobs created on the projects across its road network, especially for targeted groups that include black women and youth. RRM projects within the Bojanala District Municipality and in the Kgetlengrivier Local Municipality will promote growth, mobilise investment, create jobs, and empower citizens with skills,” says Soko.

“The total construction estimate of SANRAL’s projects in the municipality is R 740 000 000. The execution of the works will start in December 2020; tender advertisement will start on March 2021, and the actual construction will start in September 2021 for 42 months until March 2025”, says Sam Mboshane, SANRAL’s project manager for construction.

The nature of work to be carried out under this contract includes the cleaning of all drainage structures, regular removal of grass and debris from grids, as well as clearing bridge drainage ports and scuppers, pavement layers repairs, repairing damaged road signs.

It is SANRAL’s requirements for its projects to have a fully functional Project Liaison Committee (PLC) before awarding of the contract takes place. Among others, PLCs facilitate constructive community participation on SANRAL projects and ensure transparency in the allocation of SANRAL resources on these projects.

SANRAL is repurposing itself because South Africa has embarked on a process of the fundamental transformation that opens the path for inclusive, ensuring broad-based economic development.

The North West Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism, the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) also supported SANRAL’s programme, sharing information on services that it offers SMMEs.

Gearing up for electric vehicles

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Kobus van der Walt, who heads up SANRAL’s Technical Innovation Hub.

The National Department of Transport, guided by the Green Transport Strategy, wants to grow the uptake of electric vehicles in South Africa. Among others, it is looking at offering manufacturing incentives to produce and sell affordable electric vehicles in South Africa for both local and export markets.

SANRAL’S Technical Innovation Hub head Kobus van der Walt agrees that electric vehicles are still very expensive in South Africa; however, he believes that the high cost could be mitigated if they could be manufactured locally.

SANRAL’s Technical Innovation Hub is the scientific playground where current road safety engineering challenges are met head-on with technology and ingenuity. Young cadets at the hub are at the forefront of engineering solutions and are mentored by highly acclaimed and experienced engineers.

The department also plans to work with local research institutions to research EV batteries, and to collaborate with national, provincial and local government departments and authorities, as well as the automobile industry, to set annual targets for uptake of electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles in the government fleet.

“We value our stakeholder relations, and have already had engagements with training entities such as uYilo/eNtsa to explore initiatives that will ensure that SANRAL, along with its intergovernmental partners, has both the knowledge and skills to manage electric vehicles on the road network,” adds Van der Walt.

This includes the training of first responders to ensure they are equipped to deal with hybrid vehicles as well as electric vehicles when incidents occur. Training first responders for the Freeway Management System (fire fighters, medical services, police, etc.) – the Road Incident Management Systems programme – is a national joint effort with various stakeholders, which can be used as a platform for sharing knowhow on electric vehicles. ?

While there are still unanswered questions about business models and sustainability, along with the task of preparing the national road network for electric vehicles and rolling them out at scale, one thing is certain – electric vehicles are here to stay.

An example of an electric car’s battery bank.

An electric vehicle’s battery bank needs to be replaced around every 8-10 years due to a reduction in battery capacity. The cost of these batteries is almost a third of the cost of the electric vehicle itself. There are currently no policies on this nor facilities in South Africa to recycle these materials. ?

Fact Box 2

Proposed strategic deployment of electric vehicle charging stations

 Route? No. of public charging stations? Average distance between public charging stations?
N1 – Cape Town to Musina? 12? 185km?
N2 – Somerset West to Piet Retief ? 13? 160km?
N3 – Johannesburg to Pine town? 4? 173km?
N4 – Zeerust to Malelane? 5? 162km?
N10 – Hanover to Port Elizabeth? 2? 182km?
N12 – Victoria West to Potchefstroom ? 5? 179km?
Total? 41? 174km?

 

 

 

Creating opportunities for girls in engineering

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Bursary recipient Tess Dube is a 3rd Year Civil Engineering student at Stellenbosch University.

Women deserve acknowledgement and recognition for their exceptional achievements and safe spaces within which to excel. SANRAL advocates for transformation in the construction sector, which calls not only for prioritising gender equity and the promotion of opportunities for women, but promoting access for the girl child to careers in engineering.

The agency has been supporting education in the built environment with its bursary and scholarship programme for more than 10 years, with nearly 130 engineering bursaries awarded to females in the last three years. The scope of support has been expanded beyond Civil Engineering, to accommodate other related disciplines within the public sector infrastructure development space.

“In recognising the changing landscape in our industry and the often overlooked auxiliary pipelines that feed the engineering sector, we have to look beyond a core discipline built on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and to effectively consider the broader scope of Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STREAM),” says SANRAL’s GM for Skills Development Heidi Harper..

Going forward, the SANRAL scholarship programme will take these factors into account. While SANRAL has a vested interest in promoting the importance of Maths and Science at school, the agency equally recognises the value of supporting girls in high school to complete matric, irrespective of their chosen areas of further development.

Bursary recipient Jesse-Leigh Nomdo is a  1st Year Civil Engineering student at UCT.

Not every young girl who enters the school system ends up passing matric. However, that does not signify the end of learning. There is a growing cohort of young people operating in the road construction industry, and SANRAL has been instrumental in creating learnership opportunities that have given thousands of young girls access to skills development, knowledge sharing, gainful employment and even entrepreneurial support. SANRAL’s procurement policies are geared to pave the way for women-owned businesses, and particularly youth-run small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), to benefit from access to conventional construction projects as well as routine road maintenance.

‘Quality Education’ and ‘Gender Equity’ are ranked 4th and 5th among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations for 2030. SANRAL’s Horizon 2030 strategy is closely aligned to these, and the agency seeks to aggressively prioritise a developmental pipeline for the girl child in engineering, for a substantial rise in the uptake of women in the engineering sector and the greater built environment.

 

Ismail Essa, SANRAL’s Transformation Manager

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Ismail Essa, SANRAL’s Transformation Manager

SANRAL is committed to genuine economic transformation that will see black businesses grow and prosper. Says Ismael Essa, SANRAL’s Transformation Manager: “Now more than ever, we are called upon to drive this agenda aggressively, in a bid to breathe economic recovery into every corner of South Africa touched by the national road network.

“I have said it on many platforms, and I stand by this: we will not tolerate fronting or any other type of wrongdoing. It robs our people of the opportunity to grow as business leaders, and it ultimately robs South Africa of the fair opportunity to liberate her people out of poverty.

“It is vital to invest in small contractors when you need grass cutting done or any other types of minor maintenance work. However, these subcontractors cannot be grass cutters and cleaners indefinitely. You must train and develop them to take on bigger projects. To date, more than 3000 subcontractors have been upskilled as a direct result of this contractor capacity-building that SANRAL has championed as far as routine road maintenance is concerned.”

Through SANRAL’s various engagements, the overwhelming response is indicative of a sector that is growing and that has become increasingly inclusive – particularly of black people, women and youth – and is ready to play its part in developing the road construction industry.

Essa continues: “Our commitment goes beyond extending economic opportunities for black business. If we are to see meaningful transformation in our sector, the next generation must be capacitated now. To this end, the need to feed the engineering sector with skilled, qualified and highly trained engineers was recognised early on.

“In responding to the need for a pipeline of human development, learning platforms were created from school scholarships, bursary schemes, university chairs and, more recently, learnerships for theoretical learning and practical application of the knowledge acquired on the various SANRAL construction projects across the country.

“SANRAL’s commitment to increasing the country’s cohort of engineering talent was fuelled through sponsorship of the SANRAL Chair in Transportation at the University of Cape Town, the University of Stellenbosch Chair in Pavement Engineering, and the Chair in Science, Mathematics and Technology Education at the University of the Free State. Furthermore, we actively encourage the girl child to stake her claim in transforming the road construction sector, and the constant increase in applications received from young girls is heart-warming.”

In the past financial year the SANRAL Bursary Scheme has given educational opportunities to 129 undergraduate and 8 postgraduate students to pursue engineering qualifications at a range of South African universities.

Additionally, 230 deserving learners benefitted from SANRAL Scholarships at various schools, while hundreds of young people – many of whom were not in employment, education or training – have been put through accredited Learnership Programmes that have resulted in full-time employment.

Adds Essa: “We remain committed to our mandate to finance, improve, manage and maintain South Africa’s expanding national road network. All SANRAL projects are facilitated through an inclusive and consultative process using Project Liaison Committees that are being set up locally in the targeted project areas with relevant stakeholders. In short, we want to ensure that we leave behind a legacy of economic development in communities, long after construction sites have been cleared.

“However, the struggle is far from over. As leaders in infrastructure development, SANRAL will continue to find ways of making economic development a lot more inclusive than it is.”

SANRAL’s R30bn shovel-ready projects

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SANRAL has advertised 278 maintenance, operations and construction projects worth approximately R30.2 billion.

SANRAL is ready to implement a number of construction projects as part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call for infrastructure development projects to unlock South Africa’s economy.

President Ramaphosa made the call recently at the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium of South Africa (SIDSSA). He called on both private and public sector entities to invest in and unlock infrastructure development to stimulate the economy. Following this, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula said road infrastructure development would be a key contributor to economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused widespread economic destruction and loss of life.

SANRAL’s Engineering Executive Louw Kannemeyer, says the road agency has a portfolio of “shovel-ready” projects that would be implemented during the course of the 2020/21 financial year and beyond.

“In the current financial year, SANRAL has advertised 278 maintenance, operations and construction projects worth approximately R30.2 billion. So far, 136 projects to value of R7.3 billion have been awarded.”

Furthermore, SANRAL plans to roll out over 200 additional road infrastructure projects across all nine provinces, impacting directly on economic development, job creation and economic transformation. Twelve projects with an estimated value of R12.1 billion had to be cancelled and retendered, largely due to non-compliant bid submissions. This is one of the major contributing factors to the delay in awarding tenders.

“We recognise the frustrations of the industry and are engaging with regulatory bodies like National Treasury on ways to streamline our procurement processes to make them more efficient and ultimately to speed up the process of adjudicating and awarding tenders. We typically can receive as many as 60 tenders for a single project, especially on CIDB 6 projects (<R20 million) and all these are subject to various regulatory and compliance verifications to confirm that each bid is responsive,” explains Kannemeyer.

He says some of these verifications involve external entities, resulting in numerous delays in finalising the processes.  The challenges are further compounded under COVID-19 lockdown regulations, as some of these entities are not functioning at 100% capacity yet.

During the SIDSSA President Ramaphosa also noted that the success of an infrastructure development response rests on the eradication of corruption and collusion, genuine transformation, complete transparency, unwavering accountability and unparalleled efficiency.

SANRAL’s track record is built on a portfolio of evidence of industry best practice, stringent quality control, transformation that changes lives for the better, and a national road network that serves as a key artery to keep the economy on track.

Hammarsdale Interchange upgrade on N2/N3

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The N2 and N3 carry large volumes of traffic, with a high percentage of heavy vehicles carrying freight to and from the Port of Durban, forming the backbone of South Africa’s freight network.  Upgrading of the Hammarsdale Interchange between Durban and Pietermaritzburg is part of Package 2 of the planned Government Strategic Integrated Projects (SIP 2). The purpose of SIP 2 is to develop the Durban-Free State-Gauteng logistics and industrial corridor and strengthen the national transport link between South Africa’s main industrial hubs.

The national and provincial importance of the Hammarsdale Interchange stems from its location on the N3 between eThekwini and Msunduzi Municipalities, its proximity to the rail line linking Gauteng to Durban Harbour, and the proposed inland container terminal at Cato Ridge. To fast-track its completion, SANRAL partnered with eThekwini Municipality to co-fund the project.

The simple diamond interchange at Hammarsdale has been upgraded to a semi-parclo (partial clover leaf) free-flow interchange. This includes construction of six new on- and off-ramps. The improved geometry of these ramps demanded significant cutting into the existing ridges, requiring regular blasting activities which became familiar to frequent travellers along the route.

The upgraded Interchange will accommodate the increased volume of traffic resulting from development of the Keystone Park Light Industrial, Warehousing and Logistics Precinct at Hammarsdale as a distribution node for freight logistics companies.

 

N4 Maputo Corridor overload control

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Overloaded vehicles remain one of the greatest threats to South Africa’s national road network, as they damage the roads and compromise road safety. For SANRAL and its concessionaire, Trans Africa Concessionaires (TRAC), which manages the N4 between Pretoria and Maputo in Mozambique, protecting the national road infrastructure is a top priority.

“TRAC has invested billions to ensure that the Maputo Development Corridor is on par with international standards. In the early days of our concession contract with TRAC, we conducted surveys which indicated that more than one-third of trucks on the N4 Toll Route were overloaded,” says SANRAL Project Manager for Overload Control Layton Leseane.

“Apart from the impact on road safety, we also realised that this has a detrimental effect on routine road maintenance costs.”

TRAC partnered with other government entities, including traffic law enforcement authorities, to implement strict regulations on overloading. SANRAL entered into an agreement with TRAC in 2002 and as part of this agreement developed overload control facilities; TRAC is responsible for the operations and management of these. SANRAL also entered into a separate agreement with the Mpumalanga Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison to provide traffic law enforcement.

 

 

 

N2WCR project to unlock tourism in Pondoland

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The spectacular 175m Ntentule Falls (left) is the second highest waterfall in South Africa.
Alice Falls (left) is one of the many hidden waterfalls on the Wild Coast

The N2 Wild Coast Road (N2WCR) project will not only unlock catalytic economic development, but it is also opening up a treasure trove of spectacular natural diversity assets for the tourism economy, including secret waterfalls of the Eastern Cape. There are over 20 waterfalls in the area, which are currently only known to locals and a limited number of tourists.

The N2WCR project is a key economic investment by the government to stimulate economic growth in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape and unlock mobility and access within the many currently remote and isolated Pondoland communities. It is a key project under the National Strategic Infrastructure Programmes (SIP 3: South Eastern node & corridor development) endorsed by the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission. Last year professional surveyors and engineers working on SANRAL’s N2WCR Msikaba mega-bridge discovered that South Africa’s second-highest waterfall is the Ntentule Falls on the Mateku River, 20km east of Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape. At 175m, the Ntentule Falls take second place to the Tugela Falls (947m) in KwaZulu-Natal, the country’s highest waterfall. The Elands River Falls in Mpumalanga becomes the third highest waterfall (150m) after Ntentule.

SANRAL project leader for the N2WCR greenfield section Craig McLachlan, says that the Pondoland Wild Coast area contains a number of spectacular waterfalls, including the better-known Magwa Falls, Waterfall Bluff, Fraser Falls and Alice Falls, among others.

Huguenot tunnel gets an upgrade (WR)

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The Huguenot Tunnel is one of SANRAL’s most iconic assets in the Western Cape. For over 32 years, it has served more than 100 million road users safely, quickly and efficiently. SANRAL has implemented an operations plan for much-needed upgrades to the South Bore of the Huguenot Tunnel.

“Over the past year, the bulk of the upgrade and maintenance work to the electrical, electronic and mechanical systems has been completed under live traffic conditions to minimise the inconvenience to road users,” says SANRAL Project Manager Mike Vinello-Lippert..

Once the contracts have been awarded there will be major upgrades to the ventilation and lighting systems, the replacement of the fire detection system and the tunnel FM radio re-broadcast system, the PA system and the upgrade/replacement of the 11kV switchgear.

“This will then determine the timeline for the off-peak partial closure, which we have previously communicated, since certain elements of the work cannot be done under live traffic conditions,” adds Vinello-Lippert.

Meanwhile, the consultant tender for the upgrade of the North Bore, which involves bringing the second tunnel online, is also currently being evaluated. This R2.5 billion contract will take 5–7 years to complete and will ultimately result in the Western Cape’s first bi-directional tunnel, which will be on par with some of the world’s safest and most advanced road tunnels.