Heavy vehicle overload in the city of Tshwane

Abstract

Paper presented at the 20th Annual South African Transport Conference 16 - 20 July 2001 "Meeting the transport challenges in Southern Africa", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa. ABSTRACT: Overloaded heavy vehicles decrease the life span of the road structure with added costs for maintenance and rehabilitation of the road pavement. The management and protection of the road network is necessary, while maintaining the economic base of the freight industry. While hauliers profit from weak law enforcement, overloaded vehicles are damaging roads, the annual road budget in real terms is diminishing and the condition of roads is deteriorating. The premature deterioration of infrastructure inevitably compromises road safety, and adds to the high fatality rate on South African roads. As this continues, the long-term consequences are serious and its impact on the economy is the irony. Pavement Management Systems data for the City of Tshwane revealed significant deterioration of the road infrastructure, considerably at the road freight generators such as industrial areas. In 1998, the pre-feasibility study on the Strategy of Freight Transport Impact Management in the Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council Area GPMC (now Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality) was completed. Twenty-two sites were identified to function as heavy vehicle overloading control points.In 1999 a pre-feasibility study on the Construction and Operation of Truck Control Stations in the GPMC Area on a Public Private Partnership basis was completed. It was initially intended for the feasibility and implementation phases to be carried out on a public- private partnership basis. However,the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Unit advised that without the feasibility study the project was not financially viable. The paper discusses the way forward which includes the administration of the feasibility planning, and a strategy to optimise the existing infrastructure and resources. The paper then describes the procurement procedure as stipulated in the Procedural Guidelines for Implementation and Processing of Municipal Service Partnerships for the GPMC.