Minister Carlisle Opens MR 559 Road between Saldanha Bay and Langebaan

Robin Carlisle, the Minister of Transport and Public Works, this morning officially opened the R82-million road between Saldanha Bay and Langebaan.

The MR 559 now features 5.8 km of new surfaced roads, 6.7 km of rehabilitated surfaced road, 3.6 km of resealed surfaced road and 1.1 km of upgraded surfaced road.

Calling the Cape Town/Saldanha Bay Corridor "the major development area in the Western Cape", Minister Carlisle said that the real challenge for road engineers was to cater to the economy's needs, while also ensuring the safety of the rapidly growing population, "especially school kids".

Holding a pair of scissors, together Minister Carlisle, Mr Harold Cleophas, the Mayor of the West Coast District Municipality, and Ms Rosil Jager, the Mayor of the Saldanha Bay Municipality, cut the ribbon across the MR 559 at the Oliphantskop T-junction.

Calling the MR 559 "a fine piece of road", the minister told department colleagues, contractors, sub-contractors and members of the media who had moved on to the Long Acres Country Estate that the Western Cape Government had "worked very hard" to ensure the road system was "functional and useful".

"Part of the reason why we need to keep the roads going is because the rail system has been allowed to collapse," said the minister.

"Over the past 25 years, the road maintenance backlog has been growing - this is an international trend - and I am very proud to say that here in the Western Cape we have now managed to turn this around."

"I am delighted that like so many of our other road projects this one was on budget, on time and has met and exceeded its empowerment targets," Minister Carlisle said.

The minister said that there were 26 schools in Saldanha Bay alone, "each of which has some kind of road safety issue".

"I want the local community to know that we are looking at how we can make the roads safer for the rapidly growing population, especially for school children."

Minister Carlisle, Ms Rosil Jager, the Mayor of the Saldanha Bay Municipality, and Mr Harold Cleophas, the Mayor of the West Coast District Municipality, cut the ribbon across the MR 559.