By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The state-owned South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) has given beleaguered construction industry a significant festive season boost.
Sanral CEO Reginald Demana said, the road agency has started adjudicating R6.43 billion worth of tenders, which will be awarded early in 2024.
Demana, said the 77 tenders for various road construction projects were advertised at the end of November 2023 under the road agency’s Interim Preferential Procurement Policy (PPP) and submission closed on 14 December.
“SANRAL is currently adjudicating 77 tenders which will give the construction industry a good start in the New Year, helping to create thousands of jobs and inject billions of rands into the economy.
“While the rest of South Africa is winding down for the festive season, SANRAL is working hard to get South Africa’s construction industry off to a flying start in the New Year. The fact that our officials are working through the holidays to adjudicate these tenders is an indication of our commitment to fulfilling the promises we made to the South African public and it shows that we are getting back to business as soon as possible.
“We understand the role that construction and infrastructure development plays in the construction industry and we are determined to overcome the disruptions which resulted from court challenges to our PPP adopted in May 2023.
“We are squarely focussed on developing, maintaining and improving the national road network in line with our mandate from government,” Demana said on Wednesday.
After several court challenges launched by construction companies, SANRAL announced on 24 October that it was withdrawing the PPP adopted in May 2023 and embarked on a countrywide consultation process with interested and affected parties to adopt an interim PPP.
The 77 tenders, which are currently being adjudicated, were advertised in line with the interim policy.
“Demana stressed that SANRAL was making every effort to catch up on time that the industry had lost by putting out 86 of the less complex consulting and construction tenders that were cancelled and subsequently re-advertised at the end of November.
The CEO said 1 040 bids were received for the 77 tenders and this illustrated the significance of SANRAL projects in the construction industry.
The breakdown of the 1 040 bids is as follows:
- 124 bids for national contracts with an estimated value of R350 million;
- 279 received for the Northern Region (Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North-West) with an estimated value of R548 million;
- 247 received for the Eastern Region (Free State and KwaZulu-Natal) with an estimated value of R2.1 billion;
- 240 received for the Southern Region (Eastern Cape) with an estimated value of R2.83 billion, and;
- 150 for the Western Region (Northern Cape and Western Cape) with an estimated value of R600 million.
“We are encouraged and at the same time humbled by this overwhelming response. It also tells us that the numerous engagements we had with interested and affected parties across the country has paved the way for more effective collaboration with all our stakeholders in the industry,” Demana said.
The official shutdown period for the construction sector commenced on 14 December 2023 and will end on 9 January 2024.
While all conventional road construction will be suspended during this time, SANRAL’s Routine Road Maintenance teams remain on standby to respond to any incident on the national road network.
SA Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors (Safcec) CEO Webster Mfebe, welcomed the fact that Sanral tenders were back on track when Sanral announced it was to readvertise 86 tenders.
Mfebe said this work “is the daily bread of contractors” across the industry, and road construction is key to the economy because it is where goods, services and people are transported and “a key cog in the recovery of economic activities in the country”.
However, a construction company executive who attended one of Sanral’s PPP public participation roadshow sessions but did not want to be named said the construction industry has been “hammered” by a lack of work, and it will now be problematic for the industry from a capacity perspective to price so much work in such a short period of time.
Master Builders South Africa (MBSA) executive director Roy Mnisi on Wednesday welcomed Sanral’s announcement about the adjudication of these tenders as “a positive step” because the construction industry would want to see these projects happening.
Mnisi said that taking into account the size of the contracts that Sanral issues from time to time, which involve quite a lot of money, main contractors and subcontractors are appointed, and it helps the industry if there are projects like this coming from the likes of Sanral, Eskom and other state-owned enterprises.
Meanwhile Sanral has urged motorists to be patient on the roads this busy festive season as short-term single lane closures have been applied between the M13/N3 and Hammarsdale Interchanges for the placement of concrete barriers and for the re-marking of traffic lanes.
The single lane closures were applied last week, said SANRAL.
The Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI), with the assistance of SANRAL contractor’s traffic accommodation team, will manage and monitor traffic during these closures.
“Furthermore, the traffic lanes on the N3 Northbound (Pietermaritzburg-bound) between the M13 and Hammarsdale interchanges will have long-term reduced lane widths from 10 January to 29 July 2024, as part of the construction process for the realignment of the N3 between Key Ridge and Hammarsdale, “SANRAL said.
Concrete barriers will be used to separate public traffic from the construction areas where the works will take place.
Traffic will be flowing on the slow, middle, and fast lanes, which will be reduced in lane width from the M13/N3 merge up to the Hammarsdale off-ramp.