Councillor's Corner
Roads - Edwin Swales VC Drive
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Lifetime Bluff resident serving his third term in office as representative
of the area. Member of the Democratic Alliance.
Duncan Du Bois
Phone:467-0343 or mobile:083 291-4913
Municipal Manager - Dr Sutcliffe:  Tel 311-2130 ;
SutcliffeM@durban.gov.za
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You can contact Councillor D Du Bois by e-mail @ dubois@axxess.co.za
EDWIN SWALES VC DVE:  a crisp perspective

11May 2008
Since 2005 when the upsurge in container traffic came to register on our collective radar screens, I have
explored all avenues in attempting to alleviate and/ or redress the issue. Without giving you a history lesson,
those avenues have included correspondence with Sutcliffe, notices of motion to Council, petitioning, on-site
meeting with officials, recourse to the DA's national transport spokesman, Stuart Farrow in parliament, an
appeal to Maria Ramos, remonstration with Transnet, Propnet officials.

The issue is intractable for a single reason: the unprecendented boom in road-based container traffic
fuelled by a growth rate of 16%. Durban is the 8th largest terminal in the world. Until and unless a critical
percentage of the volume of container traffic is shifted onto rail, which is Ramos' intention, the South Durban
Basin is going to be plagued by the onslaught of these heavy trucks.

Bottlenecks occur when there is a hold-up with the paperwork inside the port which has a spillover effect
onto our roads. Regulating all of this is a tall order. No number of Metro Police could accomplish it.
Moreover, it would cause container trucks to back-up for kms along the western part of
Edwin Swales VC Dve towards Malvern. Just as King Canute could not hold back the tide, so we cannot
stem the tide of container traffic as long as an alternative option, namely, rail, is not viable.

Signs do not deter drivers, especially those with challenging turn-around times. I am not condoning the
passage of these vehicle along Bluff Rd. The signs are there. Catching defaulters on a random basis as
Metro Police do, is also obviously not a deterrent because it is a recurring offence.

The solution to all of this lies off the Bluff and in the hands of  higher authorities, namely, Transnet and the
national transportation dept. That is reality. A new approach to this seemingly intractable is to have special
lay-byes and truckports built so that at peak hours in the morning and late afternoon all heavies can be
removed from the roads. This option is to be explored at local and national levels of government.

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