Have you seen the price of gold recently?

They have introduced tolls on many of the freeways in the area to pay for upgrades. This has been pretty unpopular as previously in South Africa the situation with tolling was very similar to the UK in that tolls only applied to a very few bridges and tunnels that were especially big engineering projects.

On the other hand, the developing world has not been hit nearly as hard by the economic crisis as Europe and the USA, and so there is not the same squeeze on spending.

I have done a few toll comaprisons:

South Africa
du Toits Kloof Tunnel R25.00 = £2.10 approx
N3: Durban- Colenso/Winterton (207km) R41.00 = R0.20/km = 1.8p/km approx

Italy
A1: Milan - Naples (750 km) - £40 = 6p/km

Britain
Severn Bridge - £5.50
M6 Toll (43 km) - £5.30 = 12p/km

In Gauteng the tolling will apply to much of the huge existing freeway mileage in the province. As such, those locals who understand it - a small minority, in my experience - tend to oppose it, notwithstanding the upgrades it makes possible.

This is quite a radical change of policy: previously, I believe SA policy was similar to UK policy, in that tolling only applied to new build roads, and the old road remained available. (It looks like the UK may be following SA's lead in a much smaller way in Runcorn.)

Given the above, it's not difficult to see where the money for the Gauteng scheme comes from. The M6 Toll would be very profitable if the scheme included tolling the M6 through Birmingham.

It's also a nationwide issue. The planning for the new N2 freeway though the Wild Coast area of the Eastern Cape would be part funded by a new toll plaza on the N2 in Durban's southern suburbs...

signol

The local government in Durban are resisting this strongly, and it is the same in the Western Cape where SANRAL wants to toll the N1 and N2 north/east of the R300.

On the other hand, I think the N2 does badly need upgrading between East London and Port Shepstone. In that part of the country the coastal plain disappears and rugged terrain stretches right down to the coast (that's why it is known as the Wild Coast) and so the N2 is deflected up to 100km inland on quite a detour and becomes quite winding. It is 350 km between East London and Port Shepstone as the crow flies but 540 km by road.

I wonder what the economic impact of tolling is. My feeling is that tolling is politically easier, but doesn't provide as much stimulation to the economy as roads that are free to use paid out of general taxation, because a person or company will use a free road more as they have already paid for it.

East London to Port Shepstone - Google Maps

Back to the GFIP and there are some nice before-after comparisons where new and old satellite views are stitched together: Western Bypass - Google Maps

Another couple of negative impacts of tolling:

(1) The cost of the tolling infrastructure, be it toll booths or hundreds of cameras and support systems.

(2) Congestion - both on lower standard roads used to avoid tolls and (if booths are used) on the tolled road itself.