About the N3 Toll Route

On 2 November 1999, N3 Toll Concession (RF) Proprietary Limited (N3TC) entered into a 30-year toll road concession contract with the South African National Roads Agency (SOC) Limited (SANRAL) to manage a 415 km section of the N3 transport corridor known as the N3 Toll Route.

The N3 Toll Route starts at the Cedara interchange in KwaZulu-Natal and ends at the Heidelberg South interchange in Gauteng.

The N3 Toll Route concession agreement is considered to be one of South Africa’s most successful public-private sector partnerships. In terms of this partnership, N3TC is responsible to design, construct, finance, operate and maintain this section of N3 Route until the concession contract ends in 2029.

The N3 Toll Route is a key transport node linking largest port, the Durban Harbour in KwaZulu-Natal to South Africa's economic hub, Gauteng. The Route transects numerous deep rural and agricultural communities as well as small towns and villages. It meanders through four of South Africa’s provinces, namely Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.

Transport corridors, such as the N3 Toll Route, can provide the impetus to sustainable economic growth and the alleviation of poverty through infrastructure development, creating employment opportunities, skills development, and the development and growth of business nodes along the route.

Having established sound engineering and financial platforms, N3TC has refined and expanded its business model to address its primary customer needs, namely safety, convenience and mobility.

Safety: the ability to travel on a world-class road with engineering, education and enforcement being the pillars upon which a safer N3 Toll Route is created.

Convenience: the ease with which road users – from leisure travellers, commuters, business operators to commercial hauliers – travel along the N3 Toll Route.

Mobility: where traffic congestion, construction, delays and road incidents or emergencies are managed and minimised and throughput at toll plazas is optimised.

All N3TC’s activities are underpinned by the firm commitment of its shareholders and management team to enable sustainable partnerships with all its stakeholders across the various regions and communities along the N3 Toll Route.

Excellence in the provision of infrastructure and quality service equally demands excellence in interaction with communities and customers – this is the cornerstone of N3TC’s business.

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Road Safety

N3TC is keenly aware of the vulnerability of people on the world’s road transport networks. Globally, road crashes impose immense human and financial burdens on societies.

Road safety underpins N3TC’s efforts to:

  • build road safety management capacity
  • improve road infrastructure
  • educate and enhance road user behaviour
  • improve post-crash care support

In this endeavor, N3TC deploys significant resources to enhance safety along the route. The company works in close partnership with all law enforcement-, emergency- and medical rescue services along the N3 Toll Route.

N3TC’s road safety interventions include amongst others:

  • provision of road incident management (RIMS) services
  • emergency and crash assistance
  • capacity-building and training
  • education and awareness
  • CCTV-surveillance to monitor traffic, road and weather conditions and respond timeously to dangerous situations
  • post-crash care
  • crash trend analysis and data capturing
  • improved road signage and markings to give better guidance to road users and help avoid dangerous situations

Route Control Centre

N3TC operates a Route Control Centre (RCC) based approximately midway along the N3 Toll Route near Harrismith from where all incidents along the N3 Toll Route are managed and assistance dispatched.

All information pertaining to the N3 Toll Route is fed into the Route Control Centre. From here the N3 Road Incident Management System (RIMS) is diligently managed. This database is a powerful tool which enables N3TC to identify hotspots along the N3 Toll Route; and to achieve better understanding of the type of incidents along the Route, and how to manage and mitigate these to ensure overall improved road safety.

N3TC disseminates vital real-time and verified information from the Route Control Centre to its partners and customers through a number of communication platforms, including the 24-hour N3TC Helpline, sms-alerts, Twitter and Facebook.

N3TC is always on standby to provide assistance.

Road users are strongly advised to obtain the latest road and traffic information by contacting the N3TC Helpline on 0800 63 4357 or via Twitter: @N3Route.

Road users experiencing any difficulties along the N3 Toll Route can obtain help by contacting N3TC via the 24-hour Helpline or Twitter.  Should it be required, a Route Patrol Team will be dispatched to provide assistance. These highly trained teams are geared to provide help during any emergencies on the N3 Toll Route. N3TC’s Route Patrol Teams monitor the entire route on a daily basis and helps to ensure that conditions along the N3 Toll Route remain as safe as possible.