Alfred Moselakgomo

Alfred Moselakgomo

The Mbombela municipality has warned motorists that there will be a major traffic disruption in Nelspruit for more than a year.

The disruption, which will take place until March 2010, will be caused by the widening of the R40 road in Nelspruit which begins early next month.

Mbombela municipal spokesman, Bessie Pienaar, said the upgrade will take place between Bergvlam Hoerskool at the Sarel Celliers and Geelhout street intersection on the southern side right up to the Lydenburg-Sabie intersection on the northern side of Nelspruit.

"Contractors on the project will be on site by the end of this month, and there will be major disruptions on this road."

She said her municipality would liaise with the traffic department to provide traffic control to alleviate as much congestion as possible..

Pienaar said a grant had been made by the Global Environment Facility institution to enable Mbombela to create public participation and traffic control.

"Construction work will start all over the entire section of the R40 at the same time, with two big priorities; the first place is the Old Pretoria Road/Bosch street intersection near the Showgrounds," said Pienaar.

"The second is the canal bridge on the Sabie-Lydenburg intersection."

She said the reason for the construction work was partly to upgrade the existing road as part of the run up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup and to widen the road to three lanes to accommodate the heavy traffic.

The project will cost R162million.