Durban City roads routes set to change

Description:

Some roads through the city of Durban, special heavy-duty truck traffic lanes could be closed off to normal traffic in an effort to reduce the congestion from the harbour.

The eThekwini Municipality is possibility considering this because of the wake of fatal accidents and congestion caused by freight trucks.

Routes through the city as determined by the council will change the face of the bustling harbour area and surrounding communities.

Community organisations from Merebank, Clairwood, Isipingo and Bluff have repeatedly called for the removal of trucks from their areas.

The possibility of a dedicated route for freight vehicles formed part of the city's investigation into building a container terminal in the Cato Ridge area is not excluded.

The revised freight route will pertain to heavy duty vehicles, trucks carrying freight into and out of the port and other hubs in the eThekwini region.

This is because the city need to accommodate freight and infrastructure and land uses associated with transport routes and systems to the port and out of the port, the back of port area, the new airport and new industrial land offerings in the north and existing industrial hubs dealing with freight.

Also considered is the west, which includes Cato Ridge and Msunduzi (Pietermaritzburg), and the northern areas which extend from Durban to Richards Bay and included Maputo.

Durban need to have the freight routes in and around the port that are more efficient, effective and mitigates against current domestic conflicts for road capacity roads and land uses.

Revised routes would have to include areas or hubs for truck stops, areas for transfer to and from rail, and check points.

The city is still investigating a dry port container terminal at Cato Ridge.

There has always been heavy traffic in these areas and the call for height restrictions as well for trucks, among other measures, to stop truck-related accidents.

Residents asked that town planning be applied and enforced for a clear demarcation between residential, commercial and industrial zones, trucking operations in the residential area be given notice to relocate or face eviction, for landowners who rent out their properties to trucking companies to be prosecuted, prosecutions for town planning violations and traffic offences involving trucks and trucking be expedited and converted into convictions, for Metro Police to be more pro-active, and that the height restriction resolution for Bluff Road be finalised.

Several accidents have left people dead in the area.

In August last year, residents from the south Durban communities of Merebank, Clairwood, Isipingo and Bluff embarked on a mass march through the streets of Clairwood, calling for action against trucks being driven recklessly through residential areas, ignoring traffic rules.