A busy section of the R67 route between Whittlesea and Queenstown in the Eastern Cape will soon be safer for motorists and communities, as Concor Infrastructure, under the supervision of KBK Engineers, progresses well on its contract for SANRAL to widen the roadway and improve vertical and horizontal alignments.
Scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2019, work has been ongoing since November 2016 on a 15,4-km stretch between Whittlesea and the Swart Kei River, including a 740-metre section that runs through the town of Whittlesea. Concor Infrastructure site agent Lwandiso Reve says the road remains a single lane carriageway, but a three-metre shoulder is being added on each side, making for safer driving conditions. The widening has also meant extensions to culverts and cattle crossings. under the roadway.
“SANRAL wanted us to ensure that traffic flow was disrupted as little as possible, so we have created six diversions around the areas where culvert and other extensions were necessary,” says Reve. “This has allowed us to keep any stop-go arrangements to a minimum.” Concor Infrastructure is conducting roadwork at night to ease disruption for residents and motorists. While the town section of the road is receiving patching and a 40-mm asphalt surfacing, the rest of the work involves full reconstruction of the roadway.
Aggregate has been quarried, crushed and screened at a nearby source, providing material for two 150 mm selected layers of G5 material, one 300 mm sub-base layer of G5 material with G4 grading, and a 150 mm G1 base layer. AfriSam’s Roadstab is being utilised for road stabilisation, and the surface is completed with a bituminous single seal with 20-mm aggregate and slurry, or Cape seal.
Infrastructural work includes extending seven major culverts and six livestock crossings under the road. Partnerships with small businesses from the local communities including the Enoch Mgijima local municipality, the Chris Hani District and the Eastern Cape Province are key to the project as part of Concor Infrastructure’s transformational focus on enterprise development, says Reve. This is also a SANRAL requirement.
Some 45 SMMEs have been contracted for work and local enterprises have also been engaged to manufacture precast concrete bricks, blocks and kerbs, and have also laid paved roads in the communities themselves.
