Construction of GO!Durban, the eThekwini Municipality’s new integrated rapid public transport network is well underway with the development of the C3 corridor from Bridge City, in KwaMashu, to Pinetown CBD, in the first phase of the project.
The first corridor or trunk route is due to be operational in 2016. Construction has started on the dedicated public transport lanes on the MR577, a provincial road, which links KwaMashu to Pinetown. Construction has also started on Josiah Gumede Road in Pinetown CBD. This trunk route will accommodate 18 transfer stations and 24 kilometres of dedicated lanes.
Seventy-one articulated buses will have right of way directly along the corridor, ensuring that passengers have an efficient commute, free of congestion and delays. There is a terminal at Bridge City in KwaMashu and the buses will turn at Lahee Park and return to KwaMashu.
“Commuters, business-owners, workers and residents in these areas are urged to find alternate routes, or to ensure they allow for more time on the road to get to their destinations during this construction phase,” requests Thami Manyathi, Head of eThekwini Transport Authority.
“As we roll out this exciting new network for our citizens, we see the tangible development of what a few years ago was only a dream,” says Mayor of eThekwini Municipality, Cllr James Nxumalo. “If the City is to achieve higher rates of growth in economic development, address unemployment and inequality, we need a vastly improved public transport system that will bring about far reaching benefits for public transport users and all residents and visitors in the City.”
“This is biggest infrastructural project that the city has ever undertaken with an investment of R22 billion over 13 years,” says Cllr Nxumalo, “Besides the obvious benefits that the improvement of our public transport will provide, this investment also has benefits to the economic life of the city. GO!Durban promotes participation of priority business entities in all contracts, subcontracting to local contractors and sourcing of materials from local suppliers. Given that it also promotes the utilization of local unskilled labour, skills development, employment of unemployed graduates, and corporate social investment by the contractors, the project is able to bridge the economic empowerment and labour gaps of the past.”
“During this construction phase, we recognise that motorists will experience delays and inconvenience, but request that people be patient and work with us,” says Cllr Nxumalo. “We are doing everything possible to minimise the inconvenience resulting from construction activities through traffic management and accommodation plans, as well as the speed with which the GO!Durban project will be undertaken.”
“We will continue to engage with stakeholders and communities, including the taxi industry, in these affected areas and request that all citizens work together with us to help create and develop one of the most exciting developments in the city to date.”
