Name of the Project
N2 Wild Coast Toll Road (N2WCTR) megabridge projects.

Location
The bridges will be built over the Msikaba and the Mtentu river gorges, both near Lusikisiki, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.

Project Owner/s
South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral).

Project Description
The Msikaba and Mtentu bridges form part of the N2WCTR project.

The N2WCTR is a major project for the Eastern Cape and forms part of government’s third Strategic Infrastructure Project, the South-Eastern node and corridor development, whose key purpose is to serve as a catalyst to uplift economic growth in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The project entails a 410 km stretch of road from East London to the Mtamvuna river on the border of the Eastern Cape and the KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

Once completed the new shorter, flatter and faster N2WCTR will cut travelling time between Mthatha and Durban by between 1.5 hours (light vehicles) and 3 hours (heavy freight), resulting in a time-cost saving of about R1.5-billion a year for road users. In addition to improving logistics and trade between the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, the new route will also stimulate local economic development for the Pondoland area, particularly in tourism.

The 1.13-km-long Mtentu bridge, which includes a 260-m-long main span, will be one of the longest main-span-balanced cantilever bridges in the world. Only ten prestressed concrete girder bridges worldwide have a main span of 260 m or longer. Reaching heights of more than 220 m above the river valley, it will displace the Bloukraans bridge in the Western Cape, as the highest bridge in Africa and the southern hemisphere. The 141-m-tall Pier No 9 will also be the tallest bridge pier in Africa and the southern hemisphere.

Being both one of the longest main-span-balanced cantilever bridges and highest bridges in the world makes the construction of the Mtentu bridge a technically highly challenging project. The remote location and local social dynamics add to this complexity.

The 580-m-long Msikaba bridge will be the longest main span – constructed using the cable-stayed method – bridge in Africa, and the second-longest main bridge span in Africa after the Maputo-Catembe suspension bridge in Mozambique. With a deck height of 194 m above the river valley, Msikaba will become the third-highest bridge in Africa and the 133rd highest in the world. The Msikaba bridge cable-stay design will ensure that the construction of the bridge will have no direct impact on the pristine gorge environment almost 200 m below, which is one of the environmental requirements in building the bridge.

Sanral is forging ahead with the restart of work on the Mtentu bridge site. The R2.5-billion megabridge project, which forms part of the flagship N2WCTR, was derailed in late 2018 following protest action by community groups from surrounding villages. Work was stopped on site for almost three months with locals demanding jobs and subcontract work packages as well as the replacement of the Project Liaison Committee and certain staff and officials linked to the contract. By early January 2019, a resolution and a way forward on all issues raised by the protesters had been reached. However, the main contractor, Aveng Strabag Joint Venture, refused to resume work forcing Sanral to terminate the contract. 

Potential Job Creation
Semiskilled and unskilled labour will be sourced locally. Local small, medium-sized and microenterprise (SMME) contractors and suppliers of goods and services will be used to meet the required contractor participation goals on the two projects, creating much-needed jobs and local economic development. The two megabridge projects together with the seven adjacent roads packages are expected to create about 8 000 full-time equivalent jobs during construction. At the same time, over R2.8-billion will flow to SMMEs, the bulk of which will be from the OR Tambo and Alfred Nzo district areas in the Eastern Cape.

Capital Expenditure
The Msikaba bridge project will cost an estimated R1.65-billion and the Mtentu bridge project R2.5-billion.

Planned Start/End Date
The N2WCTR project has been under way since 2011; however, the major greenfield portion of the route between Port St Johns and Port Edward only started in 2016.

Construction of the Mtentu bridge is expected to resume in early 2021, with construction expected to take 42 months, including a four-month ramp-up period. Completion of the bridge is expected to be in mid- to late 2024. This will depend on any delays experienced.

The Msikaba bridge project is in the early construction phase, following an extended initial ramp-up period. The bridge construction started in January 2019 and the planned completion date is mid-2022.

Latest Developments.
After Aveng Strabag Joint Venture’s termination of the Mtentu bridge project contract in February 2019, Sanral applied to National Treasury for permission to negotiate with the previously prequalified, but unsuccessful bidders, to continue with construction of the bridge. The application was declined, and the project will be retendered.

The retender is planned to be published in mid-March 2020, with Sanral expecting to award the Mtentu bridge contract in the last quarter of the year and have the new contractor on site in early 2021.

The scope of the new tender has been expanded to ensure that the required 30% minimum targeted enterprise (TE) contract participation goal is realised. The new scope includes:

• three community development (CD) projects of about R50-million each, which will train and mentor ten local Grade 1 SMMEs for each project and build community access roads between Makamela, Baleni-Jama, and Mdatya-Xolobeni. More than 100 local residents will be employed on each CD project.
• the upgrade of about 19 km of gravel to surfaced roads between the Holy Cross to Mkhambati roads. This will link the N2 through Holy Cross to Flagstaff with a surfaced road. This subproject will use local Grade 2 to 6 civil engineering (CE) TE contractors.
• the construction of about 3.7 km of the N2 road using Grade 5 to 7 CE TE contractors. 

Under the Msikaba bridge contract there are a number of tenders for Grade 3 to 6 SMMEs in the pipeline. These start with roadbed preparation, regravelling and crushing for roads leading to the north and south banks of the Msikaba bridge site (six tenders), and later in 2020, the repairs and maintenance of sections of the R61 and Holy Cross roads (eight tenders).

In addition to the Msikaba bridge contract, there are seven road infrastructure project packages in various stages of design. The two tenders currently in adjudication are for relocations of affected houses and construction of access roads on two of these packages, which are scheduled to start construction mid-2020.

There are several peripheral projects associated with the project, including housing relocation, the construction of access roads; the supply of crushed rock material (quarrying) and several community development projects to train, mentor and grow Construction Industry Development Board Grade 1 contractors.

These standalone projects, together with further community development projects implemented through the main works contracts, will result in an estimated 30 peripheral projects being undertaken between Port St Johns, Mbizana and Ingquza Hill, predominantly by local SMMEs. 

In May/June 2020, the first two big road packages valued at close to R1-billion each will be tendered, with the remaining five packages set to be rolled out from late 2020.

Between April and June 2020, five tenders for the supply of crushed rock material for various packages will be advertised.

Further tenders will be rolled out in the second half of 2020 into 2021. Provided there are no additional significant delays, as occurred on Mtentu bridge, the greenfield project is expected to be completed in 2025.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Concor Mota-Engil Joint Venture (Msikaba bridge contract); HVA Joint Venture (Msikaba and Mtentu bridge consultants comprising CH2M and SMEC); V3 Consulting Engineers (lead consultant – Ndwalane to Ntafufu and Kulumbe to Mtamvuna river); ERO Engineers (lead consultant – Ntafufu to Bambisana turn-off); Naidu Consulting (lead consultant – Bambisana turn-off to Lingeni); Aurecon Rohm consortium (lead consultants – Lingeni to Msikaba); Knight Piesold (lead consultant –Msikaba to Mtentu) and KBK Engineers (lead consultant – Mtentu to Kulumbe).

Contact Details for Project Information
Sanral project manager Craig McLachlan, tel +27 41398 3200 or email MclachlanC@nra.co.za or for technical aspects Sanral bridge network manager Edwin Kruger, tel +27 12 844 8000.