Name of the Project
N2 Wild Coast Toll Road (N2WCTR) megabridges project.

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 the backbone of the greenfield portion of the N2WCTR project – one of government’s 18 Strategic Integrated Projects.

The greenfield section extends from Port Edward, in KwaZulu-Natal, through Lusikisiki, to Port St Johns, in the Eastern Cape.

This section is a new road and, without the bridges, will not be able to be completed.

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 one of the longest main-span-balanced cantilever bridges and highest bridges in the world makes the construction of the Mtentu bridge a technically and 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.

Potential Job Creation
Semiskilled and unskilled labour will be sourced locally. Local small, medium-sized and microenterprises 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.

Capital Expenditure
The Msikaba bridge will cost an estimated R1.902-billion.

The contract for the Mtentu bridge was awarded in August 2017 for R1.634-billion, however, with the recent termination of the contract, a new award value must still be determined.

Planned Start/End Date
Construction of the Mtentu bridge started in January 2018 and was scheduled to take about 40 months. Owing to the termination of the construction contract by the Aveng-Strabag Joint Venture (ASJV) in

February 2019, however, a new construction schedule will need to be established.

Construction of the Msikaba bridge was due to start in April 2019. The project is expected to take 33 months to complete. This excludes an initial three-month ramp-up period that started in January this year.

Latest Developments
The Mtentu bridge will be built, but when this will happen is not yet certain, Sanral engineering executive Louw Kannemeyer has said.

The ASJV terminated the R1.63-billion bridge contract in early February this year.

ASJV declared a situation of continued force majeure, stating that it had been unable to work on the project site since October last year, owing to continued violent protests and threats related to job- and contract-related demands made against Sanral and the contractor.

Sanral, however, has stated that the situation had been resolved through intervention at community level, and there was no force majeure in effect preventing the JV to continue operations on site. Sanral has, in turn, terminated the contract, owing to the contractors repudiation of the contract through a refusal to resume work.

Sanral and ASJV are currently locked in a legal process pertaining to project guarantees and the reasons for termination. The first urgent court case ruling was in Sanral’s favour, when on March 22, 2019, a High Court judge dismissed the contractor’s urgent application to prevent Sanral from calling in the performance and retentions guarantees, and ruled that no force majeure was in effect and the contractor had been incorrect to have refused to follow the engineers’ instruction to resume work. ASJV has applied for leave to appeal the ruling.

“We will have to see how the legal process unfolds before we can decide the way forward,” Kannemeyer has indicated.

He reiterates that the bridge will be built.

ASJV clinched the contract in September 2017. The bridge was to be completed in May 2021. Sanral believes that the complexity of the project will require an extended tender period of at least five months.

Compiling a new tender; the tender process; adjudicating, awarding, obtaining the necessary labour permits and mobilising and establishing the construction crew on site, are likely to take at least 12 months.

Legal issues may extend this period even further.

The second megabridge that forms part of the N2WCR project, the R1.65-billion, 580 m cable-stayed Msikaba bridge, went out to tender twice before a suitable contractor was secured.

The ConcorMota-Engil Msikaba Joint Venture, which finally won the tender, is a joint effort between local civil engineering group Concor and international construction firm Mota-Engil.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
ConcorMota-Engil (Msikaba bridge contract).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Sanral project manager Craig Mclachlan, tel +27 41398 3215 or email MclachlanC@nra.co.za or for technical aspects Sanral bridge network manager Edwin Kruger, tel +27 12 844 8038 or email krugere@nra.co.za.