Cape Town - Seven planned toll roads would help to cover a R149 billion backlog in strengthening and re-gravelling the country's worst roads, the Minister of Transport Sibusiso Ndebele, said on Thursday
In response to a parliamentary question raised in the National Assembly on the country's planned toll roads, Ndebele said new toll roads, including the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, would help to cover the road backlogs.
He said the R149 billion backlog excluded periodic resurfacing of the road network, the upgrade of gravel roads to surfaced standard, the addition of new road lanes to alleviate congestion and construction of new roads.
Ndebele pointed out, however, that toll roads made up just 2.4 percent of the country's 135 000km of surfaced networks.
"This entire road network is directly funded from the fiscus, except for the 3 120 km of toll roads," he said.
Ndebele said other toll road projects his department had planned were:
* N1-N2 Winelands Toll Highway (171km) which is set to start in 2012.
* N2 Wild Coast Toll Highway (560km) - the department is still awaiting the outcome of environmental impact assessment appeals lodged with Minister of Environmental Affairs
* R300 Cape Town Ring Road (105km) - the department is finalising the environmental impact assessment.
* R30 Bloemfontein to Welkom (160km) - which is presently under construction.
* N3 Marianhill to Cedara (90km) - the department is conducting an environmental impact assessment.
* N2 Knysna Bypass (35km) - the department is awaiting environmental impact assessment approval from Minister of Environmental Affairs.
Ndebele said the "user-pay" (toll) principle is government policy, but is used selectively and only where feasible, adding that the decision was taken to use toll roads, the benefits outweighed the cost to the road user.
He said the toll road network is funded through the private sector and all the revenues are ring-fenced to be spent exclusively on the toll roads.
In calculating toll tariffs, the department would also take into account future maintenance costs and the repayment of the loans, Ndebele said.
"It is important to note that the tariff is not based on what there is already - the sunk cost is not part of the tariff calculation.
"Thus, nobody pays for something that they had before, but they only pay for the upgrades as and when they use the road," he said.
