Residents have asked about the road works along the R43 at the entrance of Masakhane, an informal settlement just outside Gansbaai.
The project entails the construction of a new access road to the development off the R43 and a round-about (traffic circle) at the R43/Masakhane Road/Gansbaai Main Road intersection.
This is the background of the project:
Overstrand Municipality compiled an Overstrand Housing Strategy: five-year program or Housing Pipeline which is included in the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) to inform the roll-out of housing projects including the 1 479 serviced stands in Masakhane.
The Town Planning application for the Masakhane Upgrading of Informal Settlement Project, was advertised to all interested and affected parties via registered mail and in the local newspaper from 27 September 2017 to 3 November 2017 for comments. The application was approved by Council during April 2018.
The approved layout for the development, included the new access road off the R43 proposed a recommendation in the Traffic impact Assessment (TIA) that was done as part of the specialist studies for the application.
The pertinent issues addressed in the TIA were as follows:
- The R43 / Masakhane Street and Main Road intersection is the only access road onto the R43 for the Masakahane area;
- According to the TIA it is expected that the housing development will generate many additional vehicle trips per hour in the future and is expected to exceed the capacity of the intersection regardless of a possible intersection upgrade;
- The current R43 / Masakhane Road / Main Road layout operate at level of service: E (unstable) and F (forced or breakdown flow) during the AM and PM peak hours.
