Roads for the Rustenburg Rapid Transport (RRT) project’s dedicated bus rapid transit (BRT) lanes are being completed in stages for the integrated system and, RRT director Marks Rapoo says, progress is being made on the north–west corridor, known as Corridor A, on the R104, towards Swartruggens.

Work on the north–east corridor, or Corridor B, from the central business district (CBD) to Boitekong, will start within the next few weeks, says Rapoo.

Other road upgrades will be managed through road maintenance undertaken by the Rustenburg local municipality and is not funded by the RRT project. However, he adds that the RRT project will make recommendations on roads that require priority upgrades for the system to run efficiently and to support the new buses.

“This is a great motivation for locals, knowing that construction will be completed on schedule unless unforeseen circumstances arise,” Rapoo says, noting that Phase 1 operations of the new bus service are expected to start at the end of 2015 or early 2016.

Phase 1 of the four-phase RRT project started last year with the construction of Corridor A, which links Tlhabane to the CBD. Construction on Corridor B and Central Station will start this year. The construction of the bus corridors for Corridor B began this month.

Through the project, the Rustenburg local municipality aims to provide the city’s 500 000 residents with a new integrated public transport system.

Although Rapoo does not foresee any challenges for the imple- mentation of Phase 1 operations, he adds that the budget allocation is always a looming challenge.

“We have spent years in the planning and design phase and we have achieved numerous project deadlines and milestones to date. “We engaged with our stake- holders from the beginning, including the public, the taxi industry and organised labour, to ensure the smoothest transition possible once the system is ready to be implemented,” he states.

Further, Rapoo stresses that the project team continuously motivates for a budget at national level to ensure it meets and exceeds its mandate to provide reliable public transport for the residents of Rustenburg.

Construction for Phase 2 operations will start in the 2016/17 financial year and extend the transport service up to Kanana, while Phase 3 will link Phokeng to Tlhabane and will start in 2019/20. Phase 4 will be undertaken in accordance with funding flow and passenger needs, says Rapoo.

The revised infrastructure investment for the entire project, an estimated R4.5-billion, excludes the cost of buses. The system will include 32 BRT stations and about 600 stops, reaching 85% of the population within 1 km of their homes.

The system will comprise 36 km of newly constructed dedicated bus lanes. The remainder of the planned routes, which cover 700 km, will run on existing roads.

Two depots and a bus holding area, as well as a transport management centre (TMC) will also be constructed as part of the complete system for the region. The TMC has been specifically designed using green building principles, and Rapoo says it will be one of the first municipal buildings in Rustenburg with green credentials.

The inner-city CBD precinct has been designed to link the existing taxi rank to the new central bus station and create high mobility for residents throughout the rejuvenated inner-city area.

Rapoo adds that the transport system will cater for those who are visually and hearing impaired, the elderly and mothers with young children, as well as the physically disabled. He says special-needs passengers will be charged the same as all other passengers of the RRT system.

“Paved pedestrian walkways, dropped kerbs and tactile paving, clear pedestrian crossings and signals, gentle ramps at all stops and stations to access the buses, tactile legible signage, visual and verbal service information at stations and on buses and disabled toilets at the BRT stations will be incorporated into the system,” he assures.

Guide dogs, wheelchairs and prams will be accommodated at stations and on the RRT buses. Further, induction-loop technology for hearing aids at the ticket booths will be used to enable the hearing impaired to understand ticket officers.

RRT Central Station
In April, the Rustenburg munici- pality unveiled the design for Central Station, which will be in the CBD on Thabo Mbeki drive. It is expected to be completed in the 2015/16 financial year and the construction of the station will cost R150-million.

“We aim to provide a reliable, safe, efficient and affordable public transport system and bring people back into the city and boost the economy of Rusten- burg,” Rapoo states.

General stakeholder engagements are taking place regularly. These stakeholders include nonmotorised transport groups, special needs groups, schools, neighbouring municipalities and municipal staff, as well as Rustenburg residents.

The Rustenburg local municipality has also run a public participation campaign to engage all residents who live in the Phase 1 area and has mostly received positive feedback with regard to Central Station and Phase 1.

“Central Station will enhance and positively trans- form the city centre of Rusten-burg. It will also be a catalyst for the rejuvenation of the CBD and improve the spatial mobility of the population. The station will also reduce congestion at the taxi rank. “Seven BRT routes will run through Central Station from Phase 1,” Rapoo adds.

The RRT system will also assist in achieving South Africa’s overall aim of reducing carbon emissions by 34% by 2020 by decreasing the number of vehicles on the road and introducing low-emission buses into the system.

Social Contributions
The RRT project is also undertaking a pioneering capacity-building initiative, the Transport Rustenburg Incubation Programme (Trip), which, according to Rapoo, is a first in South Africa. “The RRT system is the first project to provide a formal graduate skills development programme in public-transport management,” he highlights.

Trip offers unemployed, local graduates intensive three-year theoretical and practical postgraduate learnerships that run concurrently with the RRT project to prepare them for management roles following the start of the system.

Ten local graduates have been chosen for the project and will fill guaranteed positions in the Rustenburg Transport Agency once the project is implemented.

The road and bus lane construction on the project has created 250 jobs and a further 2 500 jobs are expected to be created up to March 2016.

“The RRT project continues to strive for maximum local content procurement and job creation, with a minimum threshold of 25% to be achieved through contracted parties,” Rapoo says.

The construction phases of infrastructure development are also expected to create 5 000 jobs over five years, with about 1 000 jobs to be earmarked for local residents.

Jobs in infrastructure development are managed through the project’s community-liaison officer.