Pretoria - Motorists have been warned that a portion of the N1 freeway at Atterbury Road in Pretoria will be closed from late on Friday to Monday morning.
The N1 at the Atterbury Road interchange will be closed from Friday at 9pm to 5am on Monday. Both the north and southbound carriageways of the N1 under the Atterbury Road bridges will be closed.
Traffic will be diverted by the interchange ramps to provide movement.
According to the South African Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) the freeway will be closed to allow for the demolition of one of the Atterbury Road bridges across the freeway.
"The demolition of the eastbound bridge will be another step towards the revamping of the interchange, as part of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP)," said Sanral manager Alex van Niekerk.
The existing north-bound on-ramp loop towards Polokwane will also be closed.
Motorists westbound on Atterbury road heading to Polokwane should turn right onto the existing northbound on-ramp, instead.
Motorists traveling towards Polokwane and Johannesburg will also be stopped for short periods of time for the demolition and removal of the footbridge located between the Atterbury and Lynnwood road interchanges.
"We apologise in advance for any inconvenience that will be caused by the construction. The work is being scheduled over a weekend to avoid impacting on the major flow of traffic along the N1 and the Atterbury Road interchange during the normal working week," said Mr van Niekerk.
Further up the freeway, the N1 will be closed at the William Nicol interchange on Saturday and Sunday to allow for massive prefabricated beams for widening of the existing bridge across the freeway to be lifted into place by crane.
Mr van Niekerk said the works will involve a massive crane that would occupy the three lanes of the northbound carriageway of the N1. Work will begin in the early hours of Saturday morning to close the freeway and to put the crane into position.
"For the duration of the N1 closure, traffic will be diverted in two lanes along the northbound off- and on ramps to provide continuous traffic movement along the N1," he said. Atterbury Road will be reduced to two lanes of traffice per each direction through the interchange.
Traffic will also be controlled by points men employed by Outsurance for the duration of the road closure. Two lanes on the freeway will be opened to traffic before sunset in the evening of both days.
