Name of the Project
Tambo Springs Logistics Gateway.

Location
Gauteng, South Africa.

Project Owner/s
Transnet.

The Tambo Springs Development Company (TSDC) is the landowner and master developer.

The City of Ekurhuleni will provide major bulk services for the development.

Project Description
Tambo Springs is an approved Presidential Strategic Infrastructure Project, which centres around the Durban–Free State–Gauteng corridor, with a tripartite agreement in place between the Ekurhuleni Council, Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport (GDRT) and Transnet. 

The project encompasses industrial developments, logistics areas, rail access, secure and bonded locations and transportation corridors.  

An intermodal rail terminal is being developed as a concession, awarded by freight rail operator Transnet.

The project will combine direct terminal handling facilities and back-of-terminal property development, as well as related value-add logistics services and activities.

The terminal will comprise two intermodal platforms equipped with six transtainer cranes on Burbak rails, besides other developments.

The intermodal terminal also forms part of the Gauteng Integrated Transport Master Plan.

When completed, it will be the largest development of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, doubling current freight logistics capacity in and out of Gauteng. 

It will also have customs clearance and the benefits of a special economic zone. 

Potential Job Creation
About 81 000 jobs will be created during the construction of the intermodal terminal with 110 000 permanent jobs being created through transport, manufacturing and logistics operations.

Capital Expenditure
The project will require a capital investment of about R2.5-billion.

Planned Start/End Date
The terminal is expected to be fully operational between 2022 and 2023, with projected throughput estimated at 189 600 twenty-foot equivalent units.

Latest Developments
Infrastructure development at the Tambo Springs Logistics Gateway is continuing, despite the inability of State-owned freight logistics group Transnet to deliver on the construction of a rail terminal in the agreed time, TSDC CEO Tumi Mohulatsi has said.

In June last year Transnet announced that it had awarded a multibillion-rand concession to build an intermodal rail terminal as part of the broader Tambo Springs development to the Southern Palace Joint Venture Consortium. 

It was envisaged that the 20-year concession would result in the consortium designing, building, financing, operating and maintaining a rail terminal within the logistics gateway. 

This particular concession process has now failed, Mohulatsi has said.

However, TSDC, as the landowner and master developer of the overall project, is pursuing its rights to ensure the terminal and private rail sidings proceed despite the delays.

The project’s intermodal rail terminal remains a key focus as the new terminal strategy unfolds, Mohulatsi has said.

He has said that TSDC is working with Transnet and some private rail companies, which he prefers not to name, on an alternative rail solution.

“The opportunity is still there,” Mohulatsi told Engineering News Online. “The container volumes are still there to be captured on rail.”

Mohulatsi has said that he cannot speculate as to why the concession agreement failed.

“Transnet sent us a letter to say that it did not quite succeed. We also realised early on that the agreement was not meeting its development timelines and that we had to look at Plan B.”

“The concession failure will have a short-term impact on the construction of the rail terminal in the precinct, but no impact on the development of the Tambo Springs multimodal logistics gateway and its vision as a whole,” Mohulatsi has said. 

The City of Ekurhuleni is currently installing R300-million of bulk infrastructure on the site.

In addition, construction of the new N3 interchange and K148 road infrastructure by the GDRT will start this year.

“At a crucial time when South Africa needs bankable infrastructure projects to go ahead, the government needs to fast-track projects like Tambo Springs if they are to have a meaningful economic impact in post-Covid-19 South Africa,” Mohulatsi notes.

“Now more than ever public–private partnership developments like this one are needed to ensure we capture the attention of the global logistics and freight world, as well as create jobs and a new tax base, while also attracting foreign investment. 

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Southern Palace Joint Venture Consortium, comprising Southern Palace (lead concessionaire), Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (technical partner) and Makoya (logistics partner); Concor, AECOM and Italferr (subcontractors).

Contact Details for Project Information
Transnet, Nompumelelo Kunene, email Nompumelelo.kunene2@transnet.net.