Cable thieves darken e-toll roads

Cable thieves have darkened Gauteng's R20bn freeway network as streetlights along the route have ceased to function.

4 Apr 2014

The R21 toll road has been in darkness for months as cable thieves keep stealing electricity cables along the route: Image: Tol-Plan

The hardest hit freeway is the R21 from OR Tambo International Airport to Pretoria.

That battle has raged while large parts of the refurbished freeways have been swathed in darkness, some for as long as nine months.

The R21 his has been an ongoing issue because, while repairs are carried out in one area, theft and vandalism occur in another area. " said Sanral communications head Vusi Mona.

"I would estimate that in the next two to three months we can get to a point where we have the whole medium voltage network working and all the lighting circuits will function, except for the Heidelberg area, where the entire infrastructure from municipal supply is stripped," Mona said.

The SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) says it has a dedicated maintenance team with an electrician on the R21, N3 and N12, as well as dedicated security guards and two armed response patrol vehicles on the freeways 24/7 to reduce theft of cables.

Sanral will build fully enclosed high security cages over all transformers to try to deter the vandals.

Meanwhile, opposition to e-tolls has seen more than R543m in invoices transferred to Sanral's Violations Processing Centre, with only 9.2%, or less than R50m, of the total value of invoices recovered since the system went live in December last year.

The Times via I-Net Bridge

Source: I-Net Bridge

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