Road users in the vicinity of Heilbron and Petrus Steyn will jump for joy to hear that the rehabilitation of the P 9/3 between the two towns nears completion!
After more than three years’ slow stop/go interrupted driving, this project totalling an estimated R335 000 000 for the 45.5 kilometres will most likely be completed towards the end of August this year. Currently about 90% of the project is finished and 382 jobs were created.
This road is part of a high order route from Gauteng to the Eastern Free State and Lesotho and one of the main public transport routes in the province. The consulting engineer is SMEC Consulting Engineers and the contractor Haw & Inglis.
Work on the project started during July 2010. In addition to the 45.5 kilometres, the scope of the work also included 26 km of climbing lanes, the rehabilitation of Langmark Street through Heilbron (1.5 km), the access road to Mamafudebu (0.5 km), the southern access road to Petrus Steyn (0.2 km) and the northern access road to Petrus Steyn and the town’s silo’s (2.5 km).
Of the 382 jobs that were created, 246 were for youths and 80 jobs filled by women. The total amount spent on labour is R25.63 million and R26.8 million was spent on contractor development through the appointment of Affirmable Business Enterprise (ABE) contractors.
An amount of R472 587 was spent on training and 770 certificates were handed out for road construction related training such as pipe laying, the building of concrete lined open v-drains, laying of sub-surface drains, slurry work, nuclear gauge training, culverts – head and wingwalls as well as for first aid training, occupational health and safety, environmental awareness and an HIV training programme.
Some of the challenges during the project were scarcity of suitable materials for the road building project and establishing a new quarry for the crushing of suitable material.
Enquiries:
Zolile Walaza
Cell: 082 410 6516
Saki Mohono
Cell: 082 385 5600
