Work is proceeding apace on the N3, one of South Africa’s most vital arterial highways, between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. Road upgrades, including extensive bridge work, are being conducted by Raubex Construction between Dardanellas and Lynnfield Park with cement, aggregate and ready-mix supplied by AfriSam.
Since April 2021, JSE-listed Raubex Construction has been active on a 4km stretch from Dardanellas to Lynnfield Park. The project is a major overhaul of the road surface, with the addition of two, and sometimes, three lanes in each direction. Bridges are also being widened and a completely new twin-spine, road-over-road bridge is going up over the R603 route.
Roadstab is AfriSam’s specialised road stabilising cement that is being supplied in 50kg bags to the Raubex subcontractor for adding to the sub-base layer. By the end of the contract, around 180,000 bags of RoadStab – or some 9000t will have been used.
The ready-mix supply will come from AfriSam’s nearby plant at Umlaas Road, says AfriSam regional sales manager Randal Chetty. More than 300,000t of construction material, including unselected fill, blasted G6 material and 20mm aggregate have been supplied to date.
With the scale of the numerous upgrading projects on the N3 placing pressure on local suppliers, Chetty says AfriSam's quarry at Pietermaritzburg will be able to provide back-up supply where necessary.
The current two lane-road will be expanded to four lanes in each direction
