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ANRAL, the South African government’s highways agency, has been hiring private contractors and groups to connect the cities of South Africa for a number of years, stimulating economic growth, tourism and social development while creating economic opportunities for people living in formerly isolated areas. In 2000, Bakwena secured a major concession to design, finance, build and operate the N1 and N4 highways, part of the proposed Trans-African Highway 4 (also known as the Cape to Cairo road) running from south to north through South Africa.
The Bakwena Consortium (part of the Africa Finance Corporation) is known for securing a concession to upgrade the N1 and N4 highways that carry vast quantities of traffic across South Africa and through the Trans-Kalahari interviewed corridor. Liam Clarke on the company’s decades-long concession with SANRAL and its operations in the area.
“In 2000, Bakwena secured a major concession to design, finance, build and operate the N1 and N4 highways The initial costs were around R2 billion, although that has rapidly increased. Nonetheless, Bakwena was able to successfully refinance the debt from its toll road project, the largest refinancing of an infrastructure programme ever in South Africa, on
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more attractive terms thanks to the project’s successful operations.
Paving the way
As well as operating the toll booths, Bakwena provides assistance with roadside emergencies and maintains and upgrades the roads. The company’s sophisticated system of electronic toll collection via e-tags (the first of its kind in South Africa) has made travel on its 385 kilometres of roadways (the “platinum highway”) easy and hassle-free. Liam Clarke joined the company in 2008 as its operations manager, seven years into the 30-year concession. He was then promoted to project manager, tasked with ensuring that Bakwena procured e-tag electronic tolling systems that
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“The company’s sophisticated system of electronic toll collection via e-tags (the first of its kind in South Africa) has made travel on its 385 kilometres of roadways (the “platinum highway”) easy and hassle-free. encouraging small businesses.
were interoperable with SANRAL’s proposed toll systems elsewhere in South Africa. This system finally went live in September 2012, a full 15 months before SANRAL’s own electronic tolling system (known as Open Road Tolling, active on the Gauteng freeways) was implemented. This system was revolutionary at the time as it allows cars to travel through the motorway without having to stop. Clark is now the commercial manager of the company, involved in tech promotion and the corporate social investment programme that Bakwena has rolled out all along the 385km long route. When talking about the historic refinancing, Clarke mentions that pension funds were among those investing, as the road had proved
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“In the CSI programme we’ve got four categories. One is road safety, which obviously is very close to our heart – we want to make sure the road is as safe as possible. This involves going to primary and secondary schools and teaching them about road safety and good road behaviour. We sponsor school patrols along the route. We’re involved in this on the health side of things as well, having aligned ourselves with the Red Cross, and we’ve posted training levels one, two and three in the schools so that the schools have healthcare training on-site.
itself able to produce a steady income despite increased traffic necessitating upgrades. The terms of the original loans were also renegotiated to put Bakwena in a more advantageous position with the bank thanks to the project’s success.
Giving back
Bakwena runs a four-part Corporate Social Investment Programme along the route, covering road safety, encouraging tourism, environmental issues and encouraging local small businesses and entrepreneurs. Clarke explains in more detail:
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“Bakwena runs a four-part Corporate Social Investment Programme along the route, covering road safety, encouraging tourism, environmental issues and encouraging local small businesses and entrepreneurs.
“In terms of tourism, we try to encourage and support the tourists to use the route’s facilities, and there’s other interesting sights along the route,” he continues. “We’re also very focused on environmental issues. My colleagues were yesterday involved in the release of two leopards that have been captured on a farm close to the route, and the leopards were released yesterday with tracking collars so that we can actually encourage the protection of leopards from illegal hunting and try to build up the population of nearby natural wildlife. “The Endangered Wildlife Trust run a couple of programmes in some of the schools to do with things like recycling water, vegetable gardens, water quality in the streams and stuff like that. Then the final area is on the socio-economic side, trying to
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support and encourage small entrepreneurs and give them the opportunity to do business where possible.” Bakwena’s site lists a long list of CSI programmes including skills development and education, a dedicated development fund for education and support for youth sports development, local community events and a more general “improved well-being of communities along the corridor”.
Challenges
Running a major road through difficult terrain is a challenging task. Aside from the abovementioned leopards, keeping the roads maintained and running smoothly is only part of Bakwena’s job.
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“In 2017 we’re putting R1 billion into upgrading certain sectors of the route to keep within the SANRAL requirements. We’ve upheld them consistently, and at the end of the day we’ll be able to hand the administration of the highway back to SANRAL in reasonable condition – it’s a little like renting a car – you have to give it back with the warranty still in place so it’s not completely worn out.” One of the biggest challenges in Bakwena’s operation of the motorways has been the damage and delays caused by vehicle overloading, but SANRAL has helped by hiring contractors to run two traffic control systems that monitor and pull off the heavy vehicles and weigh them,
as well as stopping vehicles that are not road-worthy. The traffic authorities when necessary will then prosecute them. These control centres (Mantsole and Bapong) are the flagship traffic control centres in South Africa. According to Clarke, “the other challenge was in creating the traffic projections. Fortunately our traffic predictions have been pretty close to the mark and they’re still viable going forward, which means we can plan appropriately and we won’t end up over-capacity as has happened to some other concessions.” The company will hand the road back to SANRAL in 2030, but there’s still plenty to do
Proud to be a service provider to Bakwena N1N4 Toll www.jgafrika.com
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Actophambili Roads (Pty) Ltd ...was founded November 2008. Originally the main focus was light road maintenance i.e. patching, crack seal and slurry seal. In November 2012 Mr. Johan Pelser joined the company with the aim to add a new dimension to the relatively small company. The new Actophambili Roads (Pty) Ltd specialize in Asphalt surfacing, Seals, Slurry, Crack seal and Asphalt patching.
before then. Construction is underway on 100 kilometres of new highway between Zeerust and Rustenburg, extending the existing N4 highway, and other construction and management projects are also in the pipeline. The company is upgrading the road to a dual carriageway along several parts of the route to improve traffic flow. They’ve also published a book, the “Platinum Road Book”, intended to add value to the driving experiences of people on the Bakwena road by pointing out local attractions and aspects of South Africa’s heritage. Launched in 2013, the book has now been expanded into an app that tracks the user’s location on GPS to tell anecdotal stories when it passes through certain
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areas on the N1 and N4 roads. This adds to the company’s goal of supporting tourism in the region and promoting local entrepreneurship. Bakwena seems to be well on track to successfully completing its concession, and making the N1 and N4 highways better for all of South Africa. While the Bakwena project was something of a gamble for the South African government and the investors who became involved in it, it seems to be paying off.
Follow us: @BakwenaN1N4 @BakwenaN1N4
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From January 2013, other key personnel joined the team
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over the next couple of years and the current Senior
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Management team has more than 200 years of relevant
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experience, we now also have 3 Asphalt plants operating
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under Actop Asphalt (Pty) Ltd. Our two main Clients include Sanral and Bakwena Platinum Corridor Concessionaire, with several projects over the last couple of years successfully completed. Actophambili Roads (Pty) Ltd’s surfacing and asphalt teams are fully equipped from leading manufacturers and are operated by experienced operators. We currently have a CIDB grading of 9CE, 8SB and BEE status level 4. Our company policy is to deliver quality service, develop and maintain well established relationships. Office locations: Ekurhuleni | Bloemfontein | Cape Town. For more information visit us at:
www.Actophambilli.co.za
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Actophambilli Roads Specialising in: • Asphalt Overlays • UTFC Overlays • Chip and Spray Seals • Road Rehabilitation • Patching
• Crack sealing • Enrichment Sprays • Plant Hire • Lowbed Hire • Supply of Asphalt
CIDB grading of 9CE and 8SB Members of: Sabita, SAFCEC and BCCEI
CONTACT
www.Actophambilli.co.za
Email: liesl@actop.co.za elsa@actop.co.za Telephone: 011 395 2293 Fax: 011 395 3767 Address: 165 Pretoria Road, Rynfield, Benoni, 1501
Southdowns Ridge Office park 2nd Floor Unit 1A Cnr John Vorster & Nellmapius Drive Irene Centurion Tel: +27 11 519 0400 Fax: +27 11 519 0414 E-Mail: info@bakwena.co.za
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