Name of the Project
Tambo Springs Logistics Gateway.

Location
The 607 ha industrial development is located on the southern border of the Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni metropolises, in 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 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
The Tambo Springs Logistics Gateway has achieved a milestone, with Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) having approved the technical layout for a private rail terminal and private rail siding.

Previous plans by TFR to develop and outsource the rail terminal to a concession were abandoned during lockdown last year when these particular concession processes failed.

While the rail consortium failure was a considerable stumbling block, it has since been overcome and the project is back on schedule, TSDC CEO Tumi Mohulatsi has said.

“The project’s intermodal rail terminal remains a key focus, and our decision to develop it privately showcases our commitment to delivering sub-Saharan Africa’s largest intermodal terminal.

The drawings and engineering of how the rail terminal is envisaged were submitted to TFR in June and received approval in record time. The next step in the process is obtaining the necessary Railway Safety Regulator approvals,” Mohulatsi has said.

He has noted that, once completed, Tambo Springs will have easy access to major road and rail networks linking strategic seaports, the OR Tambo International Airport and industries in the province.

Mohulatsi has said that the development of the intermodal rail terminal is critical to the overall success of the project, adding that it will also ensure that current and future container traffic is efficiently and appropriately serviced on rail, alleviating the existing and projected pressure on the national road infrastructure.

In October 2020, the developer of a private inland port in southern Gauteng, known as Distribution Junxion Port of Gauteng, initiated legal proceedings against the provincial administration to prevent it from implementing road infrastructure developments required to facilitate the construction of the Tambo Springs Logistics Gateway.

Both proposed developments are located within close proximity to the main freight corridor between Durban and Johannesburg, including the N3 highway and TFR’s Natcor railway line, and are being proposed as a way of improving freight logistics in Gauteng and reducing road congestion in and around Johannesburg.

Further, investor and developer NT55 Investments is challenging the PWV13 realignment, gazetted in 2017, on irrationality and procedural grounds. The realignment is necessary for the Tambo Springs Logistics Gateway to have its township approval gazetted.

Following TSDC’s latest announcement regarding the Tambo Springs Logistics Gateway, NT55 Investments director Francois Nortje has said that “they don’t have access and might never get access; and they cannot proclaim the townships because they don’t have access”.

He has further highlighted that the PWV13 was initially planned through the middle of Tambo Spring's planned terminal and that the PWV13 planning was changed.

Nortje has said that the new planning puts the PWV13 in a wetland and that the amended planning is subject to a court review.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
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.