INTRODUCTION
The Cape Metropolitan Area experiences serious traffic congestion problems in certain areas, particularly on major routes within a 10-15km radius of the CBD of Cape Town. Currently, the main routes servicing the Cape Metropolitan Area are the N1, N2 and N7 National Roads together with heavily utilized lower order arterial roads. This problem has led to the proposal for the R300 Ring Road, which will be declared as a National Road, the N21.
The concept of constructing a portion of the future R300 as part of a private development was first considered by Kayad Consulting Engineers on behalf of the parties involved in 1995. At that time, there was no suitable legislation to enable this to be implemented thus it was not pursued. In April 1996, the then Department of Transport passed a new Act, which made provision for the construction and tolling of Privatized National Roads. This allowed the R300 Ring Road Project to be further expanded and it has subsequently been developed over the past 4 years into the current format.
During October 1997, the South African Roads Board (of the Department of Transport) issued the first guidelines for the submission of Unsolicited Proposals for Road Transport Infrastructure Development. These guidelines have been modified and amended into the current version, which was finalized in May 1999. This Project has been submitted to the South African Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL), in terms of these guidelines.
The R300 Ring Road is intended as a toll road between Muizenberg and Melkbosstrand. The ultimate intention is to provide an Outer Ring Road, which is accessible from as many areas as possible within the Cape Town urban area. This will result in the unloading of heavily congested arterial routes in the urban area together with related savings in time and cost for motorists. It is the developers' intention that the toll fees generated should be cost effective to all sectors of the population, while ensuring that the maintenance and service of the road are of a high standard in the future.
Chand/Ecosense JV have been appointed to carry out the Environmental Impact Assessment for this proposal.
This document aims to provide Background Information on the project, describe the study process and enable Interested and Affected parties to comment on the project.
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REASON FOR TOLL ROADS
Due to the scarcity of funding for Road Transport Infrastructure, the relevant authorities have been forced to spend all available revenue on rehabilitation and maintenance of existing roads. This has resulted in a lack of funds for the construction of new roads. It was thus decided by the Department of Transport (now SA National Roads Agency Limited) to create opportunities for the Private Sector to provide new Roads. These would be funded by Private Developers who would recover their costs by Tolling of the facility. This concept known as Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) is an internationally accepted means of providing large infrastructure, which the Public Sector is unable to fund.
LEGISLATIVE REQUIREMENTS
The Environment Conservation Act 73 of 1989 provides for the control of identified activities, which may have a detrimental effect on the environment. The act further prohibits such activities until written authorization is obtained from the Minister or their delegated authority. Such authorization, which may be granted subject to conditions, will only be considered once the Environmental Impact Assessment has been undertaken.
Activities that may be detrimental to the environment are listed in the Government Notice R1182 of the 5 September 1997. The construction of roads outside borders of town planning schemes is such a listed activity and consequently the current study will be undertaken in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations promulgated in terms of the Environment Conservation Act.
It should be noted that of the 3 phases under investigation (refer description of the Project), Phase 1, Phase 3 and portions of Phase 2 fall within a Town Planning Scheme. Thus, portions of Phase 2 are the only areas that require the formal EIA process. However in the spirit of the National Environmental Management Act (No 106 of 1998) and the interest of good planning this project is being viewed as a whole, and all phases will be investigated.
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Introduction