Durban — Motorists and emergency services using the N2 and N3 have to put up with congestion due to roadworks.

On Monday, South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) said they were spending R25 billion on nine packages under construction on the N2 and N3 in KwaZulu-Natal.

Kelsey-Jae Meyrick, an Advanced Life Support Paramedic at IPSS Medical Rescue, said eventually the widening of the lanes will ease congestion, especially during peak traffic times. It will decrease the number of secondary collisions that occur due to there being more lanes that can be closed while still allowing traffic to flow.

She said this will hopefully decrease the number of bumper-bash collisions during these times. Meyrick said however there could be an increase in pedestrian-vehicle collisions due to pedestrians having longer stretches of highway to now run across.

Meyrick said some of the challenges they face are:

¡ Delays in reaching the scene due to large amounts of traffic and road users using the emergency lane, leaving emergency vehicles with no quick access to accident scenes

¡ There are many instances where secondary collisions have occurred resulting in the injury and death of first responders regardless of whether police are on scene.

“There are a number of factors that contribute towards motor vehicle accidents and pedestrian-vehicle accidents. The widening of the roads may assist in decreasing accidents during peak hour traffic and it will hopefully assist in decreasing the number of high-speed collisions involving trucks as, hopefully, trucks will not travel in the fast lanes,” Meyrick said.

Meyrick said until authorities clamped down on speeding, drunk drivers and use of cell phones while driving, it was unlikely that the number of collisions would decrease.

A Westville resident, who frequently travels on the N3, said residents are suffering as the traffic has been diverted due to demolished bridges nearby.

She said that the bridges at Dawncliffe/Dudley Road and the pedestrian bridge at Maryvale Road have been demolished or are being widened to make way for the extra lanes on the main highway.

“People cannot cross from Dawncliffe in Westville to central Westville and have to go round and this causes lots of detours,” the resident said.

Sanral’s Eastern Region acting regional manager Dudley Mbambo said the N2/N3 programme is well on track since it started in 2021. Seven construction packages are on the N3 between Durban and Pietermaritzburg and two on the N2 which is the KwaMashu to Umdloti and EB Cloete Interchange projects in eThekwini.

Mbambo added that the R1.2bn KwaMashu Interchange to Umdloti project started in August 2021 and is due for completion in the last quarter of 2025.

He said that the R5bn EB Cloete Interchange (Spaghetti Junction) project which started in May 2023 is 15% complete.

“This project aims to increase the capacity of the interchange and 8.1 kilometres of the N2 and N3 in the vicinity back to acceptable service levels through the addition of new lanes on the interchange ramps and carriageways of the N2 and N3,” Mbambo said.

Mbambo said there are currently 20 lanes in this interchange and the upgrades will increase that capacity to 32 lanes.

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