SOMETHING FROM NOTHING

South Africa's compelling need for investment in other social areas has led to an acute lack of money for road building. This article shows how Gauteng province is solving this problem by building a whole network of toll roads; it includes a route map. Gauteng is the smallest of South Africa's nine provinces, but economically the most important. It is also considered to have the finest road infrastructure in Africa, with 380km of national freeways, 4700km of provincial freeways and other major roads, and about 20,000km of other arterial roads and streets. However, most of its major roads are very congested and urgently need improvement and additional capacity. About 70% of its public transport is road-based (buses and minibus-taxis). The Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (PWV) Major Road Network Plan for the Gauteng area was originally published in 1974-75. In 1997, the Gauteng Government approved the principle of toll roads for the Province, and had this studied further. The PWV consortium of consulting engineers detailed an approach that includes tolling on existing freeways, and also recommended eight new PWV freeway routes. Due to the very high peak (commuter) traffic volumes involved, it is envisaged that electronic toll collection (ETC) systems will have to be used, or at least a combination of conventional tolling and ETC systems.