Trans African Concessions (TRAC

Trans African Concessions

RECOGNITION

Officially formed in 1996, Trans African Concessions (TRAC) is a privately owned company that manages the N4 Toll Route from the Solomon Mahlangu Drive Interchange in Tshwane (Gauteng), to Maputo Port in Mozambique.

TRAC became an essential element of the Maputo Corridor Spatial Development Initiative after signing a 30-year concession contract in 1997. The contract ensures that TRAC manages the N4 Toll Route in conjunction with the South African National Roads Agency Limited and its Mozambican counterpart, Administração Nacional de Estradas.

The build, operate and transfer contract expires on 5 February 2028 and represents a benchmark public-private partnership with the governments of South Africa and Mozambique.

TRAC’s involvement in social and entrepreneurial development, job creation and training, and skills transfer in a variety of fields in the construction industry has made a significant impact – not only in the lives of ordinary citizens, but also through the opportunities afforded to local consulting engineers and the construction industry at large.

TRAC provides numerous opportunities for consulting engineers to grow their capabilities, present innovative design solutions and develop their professionals. An example of this was on one of its flagship projects, where it appointed various consulting engineering firms to each develop up to three conceptual design proposals for a greenfield system interchange in an extremely challenging topographical environment.

TRAC recently appointed a team of consulting engineers to collectively develop a master plan for the future development of the Maputo Development Corridor (MDC). With the assistance of the engineers, TRAC developed the entire MDC (from Tshwane to Maputo) into a traffic micro-simulation model. It further developed a 3D digital terrain model, horizontal and vertical alignment, and georeferenced highquality aerial images for the entire route to support future planning, including the MDC master plan.

TRAC encourages and supports innovative design, including the use of cutting-edge technology to advance design capabilities. One such project made use of ordinary drone photography and advanced point cloud design software to build a 3D reality mesh. These highly advanced models – which were developed by one of TRAC’s engineering firms – were used during the concept design phase of the project.

What’s more, TRAC make use of an advanced pavement management system to continuously manage and monitor its road pavement infrastructure. The company has implemented electronic counting stations and weigh-in-motion systems along the entire route to monitor and manage traffic volumes and heavy vehicle overloading. The company also places a key emphasis on road safety along the N4 Toll Route through its 24-hour helpdesk and systematic, highly visible road safety campaigns.

As a visionary, TRAC is constantly improving and advancing its operations independent of any one person or idea. Guided by its core values, core purpose and visionary goals, TRAC has made, and will continue to make, an imprint on the communities that it serves as a gold standard client in the engineering industry.