By rosebell
As Africa’s longest road tunnel, the 3.9km Huguenot Tunnel that has been in operation for 36 years, is going to be upgraded nad expanded during this project.
Being located near Cape Town, South Africa, the Huguenot Tunnel’s tenders value has been determined as ZAR4.5bn ($250m) by South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL).
The scheduled date for commencing construction of this project along the N1 national road is the first half of 2025.
While the Huguenot Tunnel have seen over 125 million vehicles pass through to date, it serves as a critical link between Cape Town and the northern regions of South Africa.
The passing routh of Huguenot Tunnel is through the Du Toit’s Kloof Mountains almost 80km outside Cape Town.
According to South Africa’s Transport Minister Barbara Creecy: “The tunnel is important in facilitating the movement of goods and people, while emphasising the economic benefits the upgrade will bring to the Western Cape.The tunnel’s current limitations, with traffic restricted to one lane each way and an average of 13,000 vehicles passing daily, increasing to 25,000 during peak holiday periods.”
Additionally, with the aim of dconecreasing gestion and improving transport efficiency, the new section will add two lanes in each direction.
Creecy also added: “Clearly, this stretch of the N1 is really important because it connects the ports of Cape Town and Saldanha to the hinterland. This is a very significant agricultural region but there’s also traffic coming from the north of the region and country as well.
“Once the upgrade of the tunnel has been completed in three to four years from now, we will have two lanes carrying traffic in each direction, which will significantly reduce congestion.”
Including critical upgrades to ventilation and electrical systems in line with modern safety requirements, initial works of construction process have started but full electrical upgrades will proceed once the North Bore, the new section, is completed.
SANRAL CEO Reginald Demana said: “The South Bore of the Huguenot Tunnel was built in the 1980s, so it requires a significant safety upgrade in relation to electricity supply and ventilation.Some of that work has been able to happen over the last couple of years but the electricity supply can only be significantly upgraded once we move all the traffic to the new section of the tunnel, the North Bore, which will be constructed over the next few years.”
In order to oversing design, procurement, and construction supervision for the project, consulting engineering firm SMEC South Africa was appointed by SANRAL in 2021, whereas SMEC South Africa’s scope includes both the preliminary and detailed design stages, procurement, and management of construction operations.
