With an investment of billlions of rands into the N2 and N3 road infrastructure projects in KwaZulu-Natal, the province is witnessing the biggest road infrastructure upgrade campaign that has been undertaken by government in several decades. This investment is expected to play a key role in unlocking economic growth and has to date provided training for 1 000 young people, including civil engineers, quantity surveyors, chartered accountants and artisans. 'Once completed, we will have covered 135 kilometers, including the east, west and north and south areas. The total value of the project will be in the region of about R50 billion. 'Easing traffic congestion, making these roads safer both for passengers and freight is a major objective of the project. At the moment, these areas have been plagued by congestion. 'Seventy percent of the freight that moves on land moves through this N2 and N3 corridor to the ports of Durban and Richards Bay,' Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said on Thursday. As part of th e Transport Month programme, Creecy assessed the progress on the projects, starting by vising the Key Ridge project in Peacevale, before making her way to the EB Cloete project upgrades and the N2 KwaMashu to Umdloti River Bridge. The visit signaled the South African government's commitment to fast-track the delivery of critical road infrastructure, which is key to unlocking economic growth and the potential of the country. 'The first objective is to widen the existing roads. On the N3, we want to increase the lanes to four or five lanes. We also want to increase the number of lanes on the interchanges. 'This particular project is extremely interesting because it is about efficiency and road safety. Once it has been completed, there will be a new roadway that connects the N3 from one high level piece of ground to another high-level piece of ground. 'This will eliminate the sharp descent areas and the very sharp curves. That will have an enormous impact on road safety. It will also cut down on travel time and make it much more efficient,' the Minister said. This work will promote the work of small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) and the work of young people, whether they are in the artisan class or whether they are university graduates. 'They have an opportunity to undertake onsite training so that they can be registered as professionals or as artisans in their particular category of work. 'One of the major problems that we face in this country, in terms of economic development and growth from a construction point of view, is that it is difficult to for small construction companies to grow and attain the necessary experience so they can move up the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) registration ladder,' Creecy said. Contractors, who wish to work in the public sector, must register with the CIDB. The Register of Contractors (RoC) supports clients in infrastructure procurement, and categorises and grades contractors from 1-9, according to financial and works capability. 'Thirty percent of the spend of this huge project is on subcontractors. The total value of this particular package of work is about R8 billion. The intention is to make sure that by the time a company is finished their particular package of work, they are able to upgrade their CIBD grading and in the future, be able to undertake a higher-level category of work and work of greater value. 'With this project, we have trained 1 000 young people to date, including civil engineers, quantity surveyors, chartered accountants and artisans. Once they have completed their training, they will be able to register as professionals,' Creecy said. Throughout the history of South Africa, State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) have played an important role in giving practical training to graduates of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and universities. 'In... this project, we are spending R340 million on the training of young people. The intention is that overtime, there will be 2 000 young people that will receive their form al technical training on all these construction sites,' the Minister said. Source: South African Government News Agency