Durban - UMhlanga Rocks Drive, north of Durban, is to have a major upgrade as eThekwini Municipality plans to increase the number of lanes to ease traffic congestion.
|||Durban - UMhlanga Rocks Drive, north of Durban, is to have a major upgrade as eThekwini Municipality plans to increase the number of lanes to ease traffic congestion.
However, thousands of motorists will be caught in traffic jams during the construction phase, causing “chaos”, according to the local ward councillor.
The time frame for the project has not been revealed.
The human settlements and infrastructure committee members gave the go-ahead which would see:
* uMhlanga Rocks Drive converted to six lanes, including changing traffic circles to traffic lights between the M41 and Herrwood Drive.
* Upgrading of uMhlanga Rocks Drive to a four-lane, dual carriageway between Herrwood Drive and the M4.
* The upgrading of Herr-wood Drive to four lanes between uMhlanga Rocks Drive and Autumn Drive.
The affected section, in which the road will be widened to include six lanes altogether, is roughly between Gateway Road intersection with uMhlanga Rocks Drive, to Herrwood Drive intersection, before the KZN Sharks Board building.
The municipality said the upgrades were necessary to support development in the area and address the existing traffic congestion.
It would be done in a phased approach. The first phase would include a GO!Durban bus rapid transport route between Bridge City and uMhlanga town centre.
Ward councillor Heinz de Boer said an upgraded road system was needed, because of the high traffic volumes.
He said an option was to remove the present centre island in uMhlanga Rocks Drive to create the space needed for the extra lanes.
“The section that will be expanded to include six lanes altogether is the busiest stretch of uMhlanga Rocks Drive, as it allows drivers to access Gateway, the hospital, hotels and other places.
“To put it lightly, once construction starts it will be chaos, but the point is that we need to upgrade the roads to cater for the high traffic volumes and ease the congestion that happens at present,” De Boer said.
He said he had requested the municipality to also investigate the possibility of expanding the feeder routes around the uMhlanga Rocks Drive area, as traffic builds up there too.
Comment from the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Gateway shopping centre, and the uMhlanga hospital had not been received by the time of publication.
The eThekwini Municipality said it would be able to provide further details on the project in the coming week.
Independent on Saturday
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