A major milestone in the construction of the new Sandspruit Bridge in Sandton was reached when the project’s Phase 2 beam placement was successfully completed in under seven hours on Friday, 8 April.
Sixteen beams amounting to a total of 304 tons were placed without any incident, bringing the new bridge along Katherine Street, between Grayston and Marlboro Drives, a step closer to completion on schedule in September 2016.
CLEARING TRAFFIC BOTTLENECKS ON KATHERINE STREET
The new Sandspruit Bridge will be both higher and considerably wider than the old bridge, and therefore better protected when the Sandspruit River is in flood. The raising of the bridge has allowed for the establishment of more storm water capacity and additional embankment stabilisation and protection.
The old, two lane-bridge was completely unsuited to the volumes of traffic that traverse the Katherine Street stretch between Grayston and Marlboro daily.
The new, six-lane bridge will bring an end to traffic bottlenecks at this point, while opening the way for the Rea Vaya bus rapid transit (BRT) route that the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) is laying down along Katherine Street.
ESTABLISHING THE BACKBONE OF A NEW CORRIDOR OF FREEDOM
The bridge is located roughly 700 metres before Rea Vaya’s trunk route peels off Katherine Street onto the M1 flyover BRT Bridge – another major BRT infrastructure project that the JDA is overseeing.
Construction of the new Sandspruit Bridge began in November 2014. In November 2015, the new western section of the bridge was completed and opened to traffic, allowing for the old bridge to be demolished and work to start on the central and eastern sections.
The Phase 1C extension of the Rea Vaya network will form the backbone of the Louis Botha Avenue Corridor of Freedom between the Joburg CBD, Alexandra, Sandton and suburbs further north.
Dedicated BRT lanes are being constructed to create two new BRT trunk routes, the first running along Louis Botha Avenue between Parktown and Wynberg, the second crossing the M1 highway – on the dedicated BRT bridge being built between the Grayston and Marlboro interchanges – before turning left into Katherine Drive and proceeding as far as the Gautrain station precinct in Sandton.