IN THE area affectionately known as the “land of the
baobab”, 15km south of the border with Zimbabwe,
the N1 passes through Musina. In addition to the
local pedestrians and traffic, this national road
carries in the region of 1 000 heavy vehicles per day,
which pass through the Musina CBD.
In light of the inevitable deterioration of this
infrastructure, SANRAL identified the need in 2015
to provide an alternative route to the N1 throughtraffic
by providing a ring road around the town.
Construction commenced on the western side
of the CBD in April 2016 with the intention of
completion by April 2019. There are, however, various factors which may influence the completion
date, such as extremely high temperatures, which
could have an effect on concrete production.
The project (estimated at R506m) consists of a
new, single, 8km carriageway with one lane in each
direction, as well as paved shoulders.
The ring road will function as a freeway, which
allows controlled access to and from the N1.
Therefore, two new interchanges, Musina and
Nancefield, will provide access to the town. These
interchanges will be at the southern and northern
entrances, respectively. Two cross-accesses will also
be provided for Harper Road and Freedom Street.
ROUTINE Road Maintenance (RRM) is the dayto-
day upkeep of the road network. This includes
filling potholes, grass cutting, repairing damaged
guard rails hit by cars, fixing road signs, cleaning
stormwater culverts, removing dead animals and
clearing the road after accidents.
There are 12 projects covering the road
network in Limpopo, with 12 contractors and 12
subcontractors. After the main contractors are
appointed, the scope of work is subdivided into
packages such as general maintenance; pavement,
grass cutting, and ad hoc sub-contracting for road
shoulders.
RRM is an ongoing process. Projects run in threeyear
cycles, with an option to extend by two years.
Before the contract runs out, the agency goes out
to tender to make sure that new service providers
are in place to take over. Some of the SMMEs
in Limpopo who work on RRM projects are Vul’
indlela, Vuk’ uzenzele, BRBF and Star of Life.
While local SMMEs are usually given
preferential treatment, there may be some
who feel excluded from participating in
SANRAL projects. In order to be considered
when tendering, it is important to make sure
that documents are correct and up to date,
that people with technical knowledge and
experience are employed and lastly, the
SANRAL, CIDB and National Treasury websites
are scanned for tenders.