The South African National Roads Agency Limited SOC (SANRAL) recently unveiled two major road infrastructure development projects for the Great Kei Local Municipality, which have a combined budget of more than a billion rand (R1.165 billion).
The two projects include the upgrading of the national R63 between kilometre 21.7 and the N2 past Qumrha, valued at R983 million, and the resealing of the N2 Section 16 between Mooiplaas and the Qumrha intersection, valued at R182 million.
The projects are expected to commence from the second half of 2023.
The scope of the R63 upgrade entails the widening and rehabilitation of the existing two-lane single carriageway, with geometric safety improvements and widening of the road, while the N2 Mooiplaas to Qumrha intersection project entails crack sealing, texture correction, edge break repairs, and resealing to improve and rehabilitate the road.
The Great Kei Local Municipality mayor, Ngenisile Tekile, has welcomed the news.
“I commend SANRAL for heeding the call to upgrade the R63 and N2. This will bring major investment to this area, including the construction of a taxi rank and walkways for pedestrian safety. We also welcome the upgrades SANRAL will do along the R63 from Bhisho to N6,” he said.
The Great Kei Local Municipality is constituted by mostly poor households living below the poverty line. Most of its population is unemployed and many of the households are indigent, requiring subsidised basic municipal services.
“It is very painful to see youth with a bleak future. SANRAL’s road infrastructure investment here will change this over the next few years, through the many jobs that will be created.”
“This is a term for development. The three spheres of government must work together in implementing the District Development Model (DDM). Through our engagements and work we do behind the scenes, we lobby for such development so it is good to see that Great Kei will be a construction site this year,” Tekile added.
For the R63 Qumrha-N2 project, Mariswe (Pty) Ltd is the appointed consultant and H&I Construction (Pty) Ltd is the main contractor, while the N2 Mooiplaas to Qumrha contract was awarded to BVI Consulting as the consulting engineers, with Tau Pele Construction (Pty) Ltd being the main contractor.
Ngozwana added that SANRAL had made provision to use local suppliers for material sourcing and encouraged those with borrow pits to stay prepared.
The R63 project is anticipated to produce over 360 job opportunities for the local community, and over 40 subcontracting opportunities.
Eight percent of the contract value will be allocated to labour with a minimum of 30 percent to be sub-contracted to Small and meduim-sized enterprises (SMMEs) Swhile on the N2 Mooiplaas to Qumrha project, R54 million is estimated to be spent on SMMEs, and R40 million is estimated to be spent on labour.
SANRAL also introduced its SMME pre-tender training programme that will be provided to local SMMEs, which is intended to help capacitate them for SANRAL projects and beyond.
The Great Kei Local Municipality is one of six local municipalities that form the Amathole District Municipality.
