Holiday Issue December 2009

Transcription

1 Holiday Issue December 2009

2 orange farm Randall Cable pedestrian bridge SANRAL launches the Orange Farm Pedestrian Bridge in support of World Day of Remembrance for road traffic victims The bridge was officially opened on 17 November 2009 by the Honourable MEC for Gauteng Roads and Transport, B Nkosi in recognition and support of World Day of Remembrance for road traffic victims. SANRAL realised that its ability to influence the pedestrian journey before the National Road is reached, determines the success of interventions within the road reserve. The organisation therefore engages communities residing adjacent to National Roads with the objective of finding appropriate solutions to specific pedestrian needs. In the case of the Orange Farm community a pedestrian bridge was needed. SANRAL thanks motorists for their continued patience during the construction period and wishes them a safe journey. The Etile Magazine is a product of the Road Safety Cluster, SANRAL. Editor: Ms. E. Fourie Focus Group - Road Safety Education & Awareness / fouriee@nra.co.za Contributors: Mr. R. Cable - Coordinator of the Road Safety Cluster / cable@nra.co.za Ms P. Pillay - Corporate Communication / pillayp@nra.co.za

3 road safety seminar SANRAL is proud to have hosted the PIARC International Seminar, Promoting Road Safety for Vulnerable Road Users on October 2009, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC). The WHO Global Road Safety Status Report, 2009, reports that approximately 1,2 million people die every year on the world s roads, with approximately 90% of these occurring in low and middle income countries. Of this, more than 50% are vulnerable road users. In South Africa, pedestrians make the biggest component of vulnerable road users, with more than pedestrian deaths reported on South African roads last year. The matter needs urgent attention, and the seminar theme is most appropriate to South African and Africa at large. The seminar was organised under the auspices of the Permanent International Association of Road Congresses (PIARC) a global leader in the exchange of knowledge on roads and road transport policy and practices within an integrated sustainable transport context. SANRAL has various representations on PIARC Technical Committees, including PIARC Technical Committee C.2: Safer Road Operations, responsible for initiating the seminar. Approximately 230 delegates from 29 countries attended the seminar making this a truly international event. Road safety experts from a wide spectrum of both developing and develop countries including, India, Malaysia, Zambia, US, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium to name a few, delivered presentations on case studies, current research and success stories. 2

4 Delegates were also taken to a pedestrian hazardous location to share ideas on solutions. This proved to be a most valuable exercise as delegates completed a questionnaire on how they addressed similar road safety concerns in their respective countries. Formal proceedings for the International Seminar were official launched 26 October with a keynote address by the National Minister of Transport, Mr. Sibusiso Ndebele, MP. The technical programme was carefully structured to provide a holistic perspective on the key issues facing road safety for vulnerable road users. Four sub-themes, comprising (i) VRU Policy and Planning, (ii) Infrastructure and Engineering, (iii) Legislation and Law Enforcement, and (iv) Road Safety Education and Awareness, provided delegates with a much better idea of the integrated approach to road safety. The delegates were exposed to one of the elements of the SANRAL community development programme a road safety awareness project Safe Routes to School. The Project was introduced in seven Secondary Schools in the area surrounding the R300 freeway, Cape Town. The target group is Grade 10 and 11 learners. The aims of the project was two fold to stimulate interest in the engineering profession by teaching learners the basic principles of research and finding solutions to challenges and road safety awareness. SANRAL invited civil engineering companies and the City of Cape Town to assist with the evaluation and the top four schools were selected on 17 October The winner was announced at the Cocktail function of the Seminar, the four teams attended the Cocktail function of the Seminar. Preseverance Secondary School was announced the winner of the competition. approximately 1,2 million people die every year on the world s roads

5 Healthy debates and constructive input from delegates, were the order of the day. The seminar delivered many outcomes including the following: Developing countries are faced with the additional challenge of having to promote road safety priorities against a back drop of a hierarchy of social needs. The primary challenge is to convince decision makers that the hidden cost of compromised road safety, far outweighs current road safety investments. It was highlighted and cautioned against the blind application in developing countries of road safety solutions developed in more developed countries. Community involvement in decision making and solution identification is imperative and has a proven track record of successfully addressing problem areas, and providing the sustainability usually lacking in road safety projects. 4

6 R300 community road safety programme Elna Fourie The South African National Roads Agency Limited s (SANRAL s) concern for communities affected by the traffic on South Africa s national routes is reflected in the application of its community development projects. These projects include a process of identifying, and working with, and within, different communities to assist them with becoming aware of their own local road safety issues. The community road safety programme is primarily aimed at pedestrian road safety awareness. The underpinning philosophy of Community Road Safety Programmes is that they: Encourage community ownership of both issue and solution; Provide the ability to involve particular communities that may be difficult to access by more conventional approaches; Generate insights on local road safety issues and new ideas for road safety that can feed back into the overall road safety environment; Enable the communities themselves to become agents of change; Encourage the whole community to support willing compliance with safety standards and rule; Rely on the active involvement of the community; Are initiated at the local level problems are identified by the community itself and not outsiders; Can be viewed as a bottom-up rather than top-down approach; and Community road safety includes non-formal communication as well as formal education in the classroom situation.

7 The Multimedia Road Safety Education Programme The Multimedia Road Safety Education programme is an exciting and comprehensive programme which can be used to teach road safety education in the classroom. The programme covers grades 1 9 and is presented in 3 resource packs: Foundation phase Intermediate phase Senior phase Each resource pack consists of: A teacher s guide including learner activity sheets A road safety education storybook (Foundation and Intermediate phases) Road safety education posters Each programme is fun and demonstrates differentiation and progression through the grades. The activities are varied and include individual, pair and group work. Presentation modes include discussions, debates, role plays, experiments and field work. Also distributed are the Streetwise booklets which are in comic strip format and they contain various activities to get the learners interactively involved in the road safety lesson. Teaching young road users how to behave safely in the road traffic environment is challenged by their specific character traits in each of their developmental phases. Educators need to be aware of these additional challenges so that they can understand the young learners behaviour and also know what to expect of them. SANRAL provides each educator with a booklet called Limitations of Young Road Users containing information on typical behaviour which could place the young pedestrians at risk in the traffic environment. Each programme is fun and demonstrates differentiation and progression through the grades. 6

8 Monitoring and Evaluation of Programme Implementation Each school is requested to nominate one educator as road safety contact person. Monitoring of the progress in terms of the implementation of the programme is done by means of communication with the road safety contact person per school via the school principal over a period of 12 months. Evaluation of individual schools is done by means of the submission of assessment tasks and completed feedback forms by educators after the implementation of the selected lessons. The following Departments, Companies and NGO s were involved in the different initiatives: SANRAL Provincial Government of the Western Cape: Directorate Road Safety Management Provincial Department of Education Child Accident Prevention Foundation of South Africa (Child Safe) SA Red Cross Society Global Road Safety Partnership South Africa Law enforcement: SAPS, Metro and Provincial Traffic Authorities Community Police Forum and Road Safety Forums, Community Development Workers. All the road safety learner and educator materials are provided to the schools at no cost to the school.

9 safe routes to school project interest in engineering and road safety issues. Elna Fourie The Objectives of the project are to: Encourage learners to be aware of road safety issues/problems; Development of learners and facilitators with practical research skills; Teach learners to take responsibility for road safety issues that affect them/their community; Develop and enhance learner s presentation skills by means of a practical presentation session; and Promote teamwork and participatory learning. Each school must identity a major road safety problem along any of the routes followed by learners to the school. The road safety problem must be researched, analysed and a solution proposed. The Outcomes of the project are: Learners show a critical awareness of road safety issues in their community; Learners understand and apply the technological processes to solve and satisfy needs and wants; Learners apply a range of technological knowledge in their communities; and Learners attain practical research and presentation skills. The participation of schools is through representative teams. The participating teams attend a training workshop on research methodology and presentation of results. These workshops addressed the following: Data and information collection; Analysis of data; Identification of the problem; Identification of solutions; Selection of solution; Preparation of presentation; and Presentation skills. After the research workshops learners will be given two months to develop a solution to the identified problem and to prepare a presentation. The learners progress will be monitored and help will be offered where needed. Evaluation At the end of the eight-week period, the research teams are invited to present their proposals by making use of electronic power point presentations, posters, plans, models, etc. The presentation must be a team effort. The project will stimulate interest in the engineering profession by teaching learners the basic principles of research and finding solutions to challenges. SANRAL is running a Safe Routes to School Project in 7 secondary schools in the R300 area. The target group is Grade 10 & 11 learners. 8

10 garstfontein & allandale Priya Pillay new traffic accomadation for GARSTFONTEIN ROAD SANRAL was pleased to open the new traffic accommodation for the Garstfontein road interchange to road users on Saturday, 10 October. The new interchange, part of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, provides direct access from the N1 North onto Gartsfontein road and from Garstfontein road onto the N1 South. This new interchange will provide direct access onto and from the N1. Thus motorists will no longer have to make a detour via other roads to gain access to the N1 South. Similarly motorist will now gain access to Garstfontein road from the N1 North. The section of Garstfontein road over the N1 has also been upgraded from a single carriageway road to a dual carriageway road.

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12 ALLANDALE BRIDGE DEMOLISHED Fast-track demolition techniques from Friday, 6 November 2009 till early hours of Saturday, 7 November saw the 40-year-old Allandale Interchange Bridge became just a memory in just 16 short hours. The bridge was the first of three earmarked for removal to be demolished as part of the ongoing Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) that is being undertaken by the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL). The others that will follow are the Le Roux and Nelmapius bridges on the N1. These will be replaced to provide additional capacity on the N1. The bridge, demolished to make way for the widening of the N1 beneath, was reduced to rubble with the use of appropriate mechanical equipment. The demolition saw the bridge deck and support piers of the bridge removed by excavators equipped with hydraulic hammers, and pulverisers. The abutments were removed during the course of the week of the 10 November. Safety precautions during the intense 16-hour operation included the construction of a triple-layer of protective materials and soil on the highway work surfaces to avoid road surface damage occurring during the process. At the bottom of this protective surface special geotextile fabric was placed, which was in turn covered with heavy-duty rubber conveyor belting and then the soil to among other things absorb the impact of falling material. Furthermore, this not only guarded the integrity of the existing road surface, but also made sure that the site could quickly be cleared of rubble.

13 Engineering made easy The geotextile fabric was placed on the road surface to act as a barrier to prevent fine material to end up on the road surface. The fine material could emanate from the soil that was placed as a cushion on top of the road surface or the fine material from the construction rubble. With the geotextile in place it was easier to clean the road afterwards as all the fine material could be picked up with the geotextile and very little sweeping was required. If it is raining during the demolition, which indeed happened with Allandale demolition, the geotextile will allow the water to flow through but not the fine material. The geotextile will thus prevent the mud (rain water and fine material) from ending up on the road surface which again will ease the clean up process afterwards. 40yr old allandale interchange bridge vanishes in just 16 hours! guarded the integrity of the existing road surface means that no damage was caused to the road surface by falling pieces of concrete and it remained in tack. The last portion of the bridge deck, the thin strip making up the central portion of the bridge deck, collapsed onto raised soil ridges designed to absorb the impact of the falling material. Mr Alli The demolished bridge is being replaced with a new one to allow the widening of the N1, and phase two of the construction of the Allandale Interchange, to continue a process that is expected to take up to 12 months. 12

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20 In 2007/ % of all crashes involved pedestrians. More than pedestrians paid with their lives. SANRAL is an Agency of the Ministry of Transport.