Bakwena to start maintenance, construction projects along N1/N4 routes

Private concessionaire Bakwena Platinum Corridor Concessionaire will undertake various maintenance and construction projects along the N1/N4 routes in 2018.

These upgrades are required to ensure the route continues to meet the highest international standards for motorists.

Bakwena – which is now in year 17 of a 30-year concession contract with the South African National Roads Agency to manage 385 km of roads – in July started work between Vaalkop and the Swartruggens boundary on the N4.

The project, estimated to cost R273-million, will take 20 months, with an anticipated completion date of February 2019.

Another project involves the rehabilitation of the N4 westbound carriageway between the R512 up to the Buffelspoort interchange. The R100-million project is expected to start in February 2018 with completion in seven months.

Another ten-month project to upgrade the R512 interchange, which includes the provision of west-facing ramps, will start in January 2018. The project will cost about R55-million.

Bakwena commercial manager Liam Clarke says the R600-million construction of a second carriageway on the N4 between the M17 and the R512 (Brits Interchange) will also start in January 2018. The project has an estimated construction period of 36 months.

The Bakwena N1/N4 toll concession, which covers the N4 from Pretoria through Rustenburg to the Botswana border and the N1 from Pretoria to Bela Bela, in Limpopo, is the central link of a road connecting Southern Africa’s east and west coasts. a