Tambo Springs Logistics Gateway, South Africa – update

16th October 2020

By: Sheila Barradas

Creamer Media Research Coordinator & Senior Deputy Editor

     

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

The Tambo Springs and the Distribution Junxion Port of Gauteng developments are located within close proximity to the main freight corridor between Durban and Johannesburg, including the N3 highway and Transnet’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.

In its applications, NT55 Investments is challenging the PWV13 realignment, Gazetted in 2017, on irrationality and procedural grounds. The realignment is necessary for Tambo Springs to have its township approval Gazetted.

It is also seeking to interdict construction of the K148 and the N3 interchange, on the basis of its application to have the environmental-impact authorisation (EIA) set aside for various procedural reasons. 

NT55 Investments director Francois Nortje has described the K148 route and associated N3 interchange EIA record of decision as not only procedurally deficient but also “environmentally harmful” and “irrational”.

Moreover, he has labelled the PWV13 provisional design as “fatally flawed”, highlighting that it poses a serious flooding risk for thousands of households in a portion of Vosloorus, in Ekurhuleni.

In court documents, NT55 Investments argues that the route realignments and the preliminary design ignore protected wetlands and floodplains, which would disqualify them from environmental authorisation.

The founding affidavit applying to set aside the K148 road and N3 interchange highlights various shortcomings in the public participation process undertaken ahead of the EIA approval, including a failure by the Gautrain and the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to obtain comment from the owners of two Total fuel stations located alongside the N3 that would be directly affected by the road developments.

Nortje says the EIA also does not take into consideration the Transnet Petroleum Pipeline, while the supporting wetland delineation report is “totally flawed”.

NT55 Investments has since also become aware of conflicting information contained in the environmental authorisation for Tambo Springs, which stipulates a 30 m buffer zone around a protected wetland, and the K146 realignment plan, which traverses a sensitive wetland.

It will, thus, approach the Gauteng High Court for permission to be allowed to supplement its affidavit submitted earlier this year before the Covid-19 lockdown.

The objective of the interdict, Nortje has confirmed, is to prevent the province from starting or continuing with the road construction aimed at facilitating the development of Tambo Springs, which is supported by State-owned logistics group Transnet.

The court application coincides with the recent collapse of a concession agreement, involving a Southern Palace-led consortium, for the construction of an intermodal rail terminal at Tambo-Springs.

TSDC CEO Tumi Mohulatsi has insisted that the failure has not put paid to the Tambo Springs Logistics Gateway project. He has also asserted that construction of the new N3 interchange and K148 road infrastructure will start this year.

Nortje strongly disputes that the K148 road construction can start before the environmental issues have been resolved and even questions whether these can be resolved.

Likewise, he states that no construction at Tambo Springs can proceed before the resettlement of about 200 farm workers currently located on the Tamboekiesfontein farm, as this is a precondition for the start of construction.

NT55 Investments is, in parallel, proceeding with its promotion of Distribution Junxion Port of Gauteng, which was launched in October 2019.

The site, Nortje asserts, is not only well situated relative to the N3 and the existing rail network but also faces none of the environmental issues associated with the Tambo Springs site, and comprises extremely flat land that makes the construction of large warehouses economical.

He also warns that the environmental and resettlement problems brought to light by the PWV13 and the K148 roads are likely to be replicated across Gauteng’s other provincial road projects.

This assessment is based on much of the initial planning having been conducted by what was then known as the Transvaal Provincial Administration, which had none of the environmental and human settlement constraints that have emerged during the democratic era.

“Conditions have changed dramatically. Informal human settlements have encroached on road servitudes, which is going to make it either impossible or very expensive to develop the road networks currently envisaged. In addition, environmental regulations make it very difficult to build new roads in wetlands, floodplains or where flora and fauna have been identified as sensitive.”

Nortje believes that these realities – together with the collapse of the passenger and freight road-to-rail vision on which the province’s 25-year Integrated Transport Master Plan is premised – will require Gauteng to review its current transport framework and overhaul particularly the freight logistical plan.

“If they don’t, residents are in for what can only be described as a traffic attack,” he has cautioned.

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.

 

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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