New road set to ease Durban congestion

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Durban residents can look forward to free flowing traffic with the official opening of the new Dumisani Makhaye Drive (Main Road 577) in Clermont, Durban, by President Jacob Zuma on Saturday, 2 December 2017.

“The completion of the R1.3 billion road infrastructure project makes it the biggest road infrastructure development in the country in five years and epitomises government’s service delivery excellence,” said the Presidency on Wednesday.

The project forms part of government’s nationwide programme of infrastructure development.

The road is being named after the late struggle hero, Dumisani Makhaye, who also served as MEC in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Executive Council.

The Dumisani Makhaye Drive spans the uMngeni River and provides a strategic link between Duffs Road in KwaMashu to Dinkelman in New Germany. It cuts off a massive 16 kilometres for traffic using N3 to connect to N2, and will help eradicate the legacy of colonialism and apartheid-based spatial planning.

For the first time, the road will connect, among others, the communities of Newlands, KwaMashu, Inanda, KwaDabeka, Clermont and Pinetown.

Significantly, the road will serve as a new alternative route to the King Shaka International Airport for traffic coming from the Pietermaritzburg and Pinetown areas, which will now ease traffic congestion on the N2/ N3 interchange.

The naming of the road is part of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government’s Roads Naming and Renaming Legacy Project, which is aimed at naming and renaming roads and bridges infrastructure in the province’s roads. The renaming is an effort to help communities reclaim their historical legacy, pride and heritage by giving new meaningful names to new and existing provincial roads and bridges.

The completion of the main road paves the way for use by members of the public, especially motorists.

“This is a major step in the government’s drive to create easy access for communities for socio-economic development,” said the Presidency. - SAnews.gov.za