The South African National Roads Agency (SOC) Limited’s (SANRAL) capacity to handle emergencies was tested during the recent storms in Cape Town on 6 and 7 June 2017.

Approximately 240 strategically placed CCTV cameras on Cape Town’s major freeways feed real-time information on traffic conditions to the Cape Town traffic management system.

This system was tested by the extreme 48-hour storm experienced in Cape Town.

The centre is operated jointly by SANRAL, the City of Cape Town, and the Western Cape government, as part of the Freeway Management System (FMS) that became operational in 2010.

“During the time that the storm battered Cape Town and surrounds, the ability to coordinate a multi-agency response proved invaluable,” said Randall Cable, SANRAL’s Engineering Manager: Operations.

A total of 132 incidents were reported with 116 confirmed freeway incidents over this period. Of this number, 104 were attended to on-scene and included:

• 24 crashes involving 48 vehicles
• 61 stationary vehicles
• 2 instances of flooding
• 5 incidents of road debris, including trees
• 6 lost loads
• 4 animals in the road reserve
• 2 incidents of a criminal nature.

On occasion, a few lanes of this vital road network were closed, but cleared within less than an hour.

The average detection of incidents was less than three minutes – 00:02:51 to be exact – and the average clearance of incidents sits at 00:48:25.

Real-time information about Cape Town freeway traffic conditions are available at www.i-traffic.co.za  and on Twitter @CapeTownFreeway for more detailed information.