NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO 758
DATE REPLY SUBMITTED: MONDAY, 28 MARCH 2011
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: FRIDAY, 11 MARCH 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 6 â 2011)
Adv A de W Alberts (FF Plus) asked the Minister of Transport:
Whether an environmental impact study regarding the open tollgate
system in Gauteng was undertaken (a) in its entirety and (b) for each
overhead tollgate; if not, why not; if so, in respect of every such
impact study, (i) by whom, (ii) when, (iii) in terms of what
legislation was it undertaken, (iv) what were the total costs and (v)
the findings of the study?
NW776E
REPLY:
The Minister of Transport:
a) and (b)
Environmental impact studies were undertaken for the various work packages
of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).
i) The studies were undertaken by two groups of independent
environmental assessment practitioners from Knight Piesold and
Arup/Tswelopele JV.
ii) These studies took place between March 2007 and January 2008.
(iii) The studies were undertaken in terms of the 2006 Environmental Impact
Assessment Regulations of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998
(Act No 107 of 1998), which lists activities for which environmental
authorisation should be obtained. Copies of the authorisations are
available on the website of the South African National Roads Agency Limited
(SANRAL) at: www.nra.co.za.
(iv) The total costs were in the order of R4.5 million (excluding VAT), and
covered both environmental assessment and monitoring of construction
impacts of the roads and applicable borrow pits.
(v) The studies identified positive impacts, such as long-term traffic
alleviation and job creation and typical negative impacts, such as
construction-related dust and traffic disruption, as well as noise â
particularly in areas where the road surface was concrete. Negative
impacts were found to be generally of low to medium significance, and seen
to be satisfactorily mitigated.