With growing public concern over the escalation of traffic accidents at the Elim/N1-intersection just south of Louis Trichardt, motorists will see a reduction of the speed limit to 60km per hour on this stretch of the N1 within the next two weeks.

This was the official response of SANRAL (South African National Road Agency) on Tuesday.

In a statement to the Zoutpansberger, SANRAL regional manager Mr Ismail Essa said an increase in traffic volumes contributed to the problem.

"With the expansion of urban development south of Louis Trichardt and the growth along the Elim Road, this intersection has become busier than approximately three years ago. What has not helped the situation was the siting of the school close to the intersection. Schools generate very high traffic flows in a short space of time, a fact which exacerbates the already difficult situation," he said.

Essa outlined SANRAL’s proposed short-, immediate-, intermediate- and long-term solution to the problem. As an immediate solution, the speed limit will be reduced to 60km per hour, to a suitable point south of the intersection.

"In order for this to work, the necessary law enforcement, that is speed abeyance enforcement, should take place. SANRAL does not do law enforcement. This is the responsibility/competence of the province and/or the local authority. Reducing the speed creates bigger gaps between the vehicles on the N1 which allows for safer, quicker and more access opportunities for the vehicles entering or leaving from the Elim Road. This will relieve the length of the queue and thus the time spent queuing," Essa said.

As for the intermediate solution, Essa said this entails increasing the capacity of the intersection to maintain a higher speed limit on the N1 and to allow reasonably quick access to the Elim Road traffic. It is stated that the capacity increase can be achieved by means of either a traffic circle or by enlarging the intersection. These options, however, said Essa, must still be researched by traffic engineering consultants for the most feasible solution and the necessary designs to be completed. When funding is secured, it will take about a year to design, tender and complete construction.

Essa explained that a traffic circle will allow relatively unimpeded access to both streams of traffic at a reasonable speed.

"The advantage of this solution is that there is very little waiting time for all streams of traffic entering the circle and there is a high degree of free flow," he said. As for enlarging the intersection, Essa noted that this will require acceleration, deceleration and slip lanes but will give preference to the N1 traffic and will allow free-flow movement for the left-turning traffic from and into the Elim Road.

With regard to SANRAL’s proposed long-term solution, Essa said that the phenomenon experienced at this intersection is that of local traffic clashing with regional, national and international traffic. Local traffic wants accessibility to local amenities, places of work, shops etc. while the other traffic wants to get to their point of destination as soon as possible.

"In order to handle these two competing streams of traffic, at some stage in future, both streams of traffic will have to be kept at arms length from each other. This will then require a new road alignment skirting outside the urban developed fringe of Louis Trichardt, with some strategically positioned interchanges in order to provide access to and from the urban centre and the national roads," Essa said. He added that this will normally only be considered when the average annual daily traffic exceeds 6 000 vehicles in both directions. At present, Essa said, the average daily traffic at the intersection is 5 100 vehicles per day.

"Assuming an average traffic growth rate of 4% per year will mean that the traffic will be over 6 000 vehicles per day within 6 to 7 years. We will have to start looking for a new route from 2010 onwards," Essa said.