Road construction tenders to the value of more than R40-billion will be floated over the next two to three years, the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) announced earlier this month.

Engineering executive Louw Kannemeyer said that there would be a surge in road construction projects over the medium-term expenditure framework “as part of the broader national efforts to invest in economic infrastructure”.

“We are confident that this investment will help to boost the construction sector, which has been under severe pressure in recent years, and also cascade down to black-owned and emerging enterprises, which will receive much bigger shares of tenders in future,” he commented in a media statement.

Starting this month, Sanral would issue smaller tenders related to routine road maintenance and periodic maintenance across the entire Sanral network in all nine provinces. The more than 50 tenders would be released in a controlled manner so as not to flood the market, the agency reported.

New projects would include 90 major capital works projects larger than R500-million each, which would go out to tender during the three-year medium-term period.

Tenders to the value of R8.3-billion for construction work on the N3 between Durban and Pietermaritzburg would go out to tender during the current financial year, financed through the infrastructure stimulus package announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year.

This would include seven major tenders on the N3, which would be issued within the next three months, once the regulatory approvals had been received and land acquisition finalised.

“The projects will provide economic and social infrastructure that has the potential to unlock economic growth, stimulate local economies and create jobs within the communities that are located close to the construction activities,” Kannemeyer commented.

He added that a growing share of contracts would be allocated to black-owned construction companies and enterprises owned by women, the youth and the disabled.

“We are confident that the R40-billion in tenders that are in the pipeline will benefit the broader construction sector and contribute to the growth of new enterprises that have been excluded from major contracts in the past,” said Kannemeyer.

The Treasury has allocated about R21.5-billion a year for the maintenance and improvement of Sanral’s 19 262 km nontoll network. The funds would go towards a total of 940 projects, 325 of which were already under construction.