Infrastructure project – MAIN ROAD P451
District Council 27 is in the Umkhanyakude District Municipality, within the Empangeni region. Main road P451 is located in the Hlabisa Big Five Local Municipality.
This project entails the upgrading of the 26 km from gravel to blacktop surface. This road commences at km 0,0 approximately 100m from the traffic circle intersection with P235-1 (Hlabisa) and ends at the intersection with P470 (Enhlwathi).
P451 was upgraded to a 7 metre wide Class 4 Tertiary Road. Due to high population density over the first 8 km of the road, a Class 3 District distributor with 8.5 metre wide paved lane was adopted in order to mitigate vehicle/pedestrian conflict.
A new box culvert has been constructed over the Bazaneni stream crossing at km 1, 90 while a new bridge is urgently required over the only river crossing, namely the Wela River at km 16, 34.
One of the main objectives of the KZN Department of Transport’s road upgrading programme is to create significant economic empowerment in the road construction industry in terms of support for emerging contractors. Project planning entailed the unbundling of the project into smaller contracts to enable emerging contractors an opportunity to participate.
Road construction of this nature with large capital investment is maximized as a catalyst to gear up the local economy into further development.
Main Road P451 will serve as a direct link to the following social facilities: Hlabisa Junior Primary School; Mbopha High School; Silethimfundo Primary School; Nkanyiso Intermediate School and for the Health Care Facilities such as Hlabisa Gateway Clinic; Hlabisa District Hospital; Mpembeni Clinic and Inhlwathi Clinic. Regarding Community Safety, the Main Road will make it easy access to the Ezibayeni Police Station.
Regarding work opportunities, the Department of Transport created a total of 60% work opportunities for local youth, who as a result have received CETA Accredited Training in Roadworks Construction under the NYS programme.
The programme comprised of 3 months of theoretical classroom training and 3 months of on-site practical training. On completion of training, learners who were found competent were awarded certificates in either the NQF Level 2 and/or 4. A further 5 training opportunities will become available under the Wela RB contract.
A total of 57 Emerging Contractors have been employed to date including 45 Grade 1CE contractors. Some of the activities on the conventional road upgrade contracts were packaged to achieve contractor development objectives; focusing on contractor grading designations 1 to 6CE. Vukuzakhe contractors were employed and where possible and within competitive rates, materials were sourced locally.
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