R-72 upgrade between PE and East London will cost billions

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The conceptual designs for work on the R-72 coastal road linking Port Elizabeth and East London have been completed.

And, according to a presention from the provincial Department of Economic Development, the work, which involves upgrades, resurfacing and additional lanes, will cost an esimated 5.3 billion rand.

In 2012, the Eastern Cape Government announced its intention to transfer responsibility for the road to the South African National Roads Agency Limited.

Transfer of the road, which was part of more than 2-thousand kilometres of provincial roads transferred to SANRAL, was subsequently published in the Government Gazette by then Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele.

The department did not provide timeframes for when the work on the R-72 would begin.