The Operation of Roads and Toll Roads in South Africa 2024

South Africa has a road network of 750,000km. Of the 618,081 proclaimed roads, 4% is administered by the South African National Road Agency (SANRAL) and is largely made up of national roads. Most roads are administered by provinces, metros and local municipalities. Just under 90% of the SANRAL national road network is in a fair to very good condition, although a lack of good maintenance has led to a backlog of R75bn.

Road infrastructure is deteriorating due to the increasingly high volume of freight transported by heavy trucks instead of rail. The closure of oil refineries has led to increased imports of bitumen, a critical input material for road construction.

Opportunities

• Adoption of environmentally friendly practices such as the use of recycled materials for road construction and rehabilitation
• Better efficiencies and contract management of road projects
• Greater use of public private partnerships
• Provincial and municipal road improvement.

Challenges

• A decline in the number of oil refineries resulting in increased imports of bitumen
• Budget reductions
• Lack of reliable and current data on provincial and municipal road infrastructure
• Limited capacity of road authorities to implement projects and manage road networks
• Loss of construction capacity and expertise
• Threat from Chinese companies penetrating the local market.

Trends

• A decline in the number large and medium size construction companies and shrinkage of the construction industry in the last decade
• Low economic growth putting pressure on availability of funds for infrastructure development
• Road maintenance backlog leading to a deterioration in the secondary and tertiary network.

Outlook

The outlook for the roads and toll roads subsector of the construction industry hinges on the extent to which government can implement infrastructure development. Slow economic growth will continue to put pressure on already reduced budgetary allocations. SANRAL’s long term strategy attempts to address challenges of the current government-funded non-toll road portfolio and user-funded toll road network. Due to high unemployment, the use of labour-intensive methods to construct roads is unlikely to change, raising the prospect of having to forego technologies that may offer quicker and better-quality outcomes and the adoption of smart infrastructure.

Report Coverage

This report on the operation of roads and toll roads in South Africa includes information such as the size of the national road network, major road projects, budgets, road conditions, performance indicators, safety, and other key trends and issues. There is information on notable players and influencing factors including environmental issues and technology, research and development.

There are profiles of nine companies including state-owned SANRAL, and the major players and toll concessionaires such as Bakwena, the N3 Toll Concession, Entilini and Trans African Concessions, in addition to Electronic Toll Collection, Instatoll Africa, Pt Operational Services, South African National Roads Agency and Tolcon Group.