N14-3, Kakamas

The South African National Road Agency SOC Limited (SANRAL) is proposing to improve the National Route 14 Section 3 (N14/3) between Kakamas (km 0.0) and the Orange River (km 1.4), located in the Northern Cape, South Africa (see attached KMZ file). The project and road limits can be found in Table 1 below.

SANRAL has appointed Aurecon SA (Pty) Ltd (Aurecon) to provide consulting engineering services for the proposed project. SLR Consulting (Pty) Ltd has been appointed as the independent environmental assessment practitioner responsible for undertaking the relevant environmental processes.

The left bank approach to the Orange River Bridge from Kakamas has been flooded a number of times since the road was built and again during the January/February 2011 floods, resulting in a portion of the N14 Section 3 to be inaccessible. Thus, the rationale for the proposed project is to prevent the N14/3 from being inaccessible during flooding events.

A recent hydrological and hydraulic study recommended adjusting the elevation of the existing road to the same level as the bridge over the Orange River as well as introducing seven agricultural underpasses along the section of the road. The vertical realignment of the road to the same level as the bridge would be approximately 0.6 m above the 1:50 year flood line and 2 m above the 1:20 year flood line. This height would provide enough freeboard to ensure that the road would be accessible even during a 1:50 year flood event.

The proposed road improvement includes the following key components:
• Widening the surfaced width of the existing two-lane single carriageway of approximately
8.6 m by 0.2 m;
• Widening the existing road reserve by 10 m;
• Improving the road geometry;
• Constructing seven new agricultural underpasses; and
• Constructing temporary road deviations to accommodate two-way traffic during the construction phase.

The elevation and widening of the road would mean that the existing physical footprint, which is 20 m, would increase to approximately 26 m. Table 2 below provides a summary of the existing and proposed cross section dimensions (also refer to attached cross section figure).

Table 1: Project and upgrade limits
Description Start End
Project limits km 0.0 km 1.437
Road upgrade km 0.28 km 1.437

Table 2: Existing and proposed cross section dimensions
Description Existing road Proposed road Proposed widening
Surfaced width of road 8.6m 8.8m 0.2m
Development footprint width of road 20m 26m 6m
Road reserve width (outside urban edge) 30m 40m 10m