By Lucille Davie
The draft final Environmental Management Plan (EMP) for the Gautrain, fine-tuned after public meetings and workshops in February, is available to the public for comment until the end of April.
"All issues and concerns raised during this period will be responded to and this will form part of the submission to the authorities for approval," according to the Gautrain office.
The EMP contains 22 management and mitigation sections, formulated from the input received during six days of public meetings held by the preferred bidder, Bombela Consortium, from 6 to 14 February.
Some of those sections detail plans like working hours of construction teams along the route, or noise levels, which will be monitored.
Once the public has offered input into the EMP, it will go back to Bombela for consideration. Then it will be submitted to the Gauteng department of agriculture, conservation and environment before it will again be open for public scrutiny. Thereafter, it will return to the province for final approval.
The Gautrain consists of an 80km route linking Johannesburg, Tshwane and Johannesburg International Airport. It is expected to alleviate the congested highway between Johannesburg and Tshwane, growing at a projected 7 percent a year; and stimulate Gauteng's economy.
It will provide 93 000 jobs during construction, and once complete, is expected to carry 130 000 passengers a day. The trains will travel at speeds of between 160 kilometres an hour and 180 kilometres an hour, with the trip between Tshwane and Joburg taking 40 minutes, and between Sandton and the airport less than 15 minutes.
During peak times a train will enter each station every 10 minutes, and trains will run for up to 18 hours a day. A shuttle bus service will run between the 10 stations, with about 120 buses operating on 560 routes.
Some 65 road intersections in the vicinity of the stations will be upgraded. More than 200 hectares of soil will be cleared, a good deal of it between the first station at Park Station and the two underground stations at Rosebank and Sandton. About 112 000m² of bridges and viaduct structures will also be constructed.
The track gauge, or distance between the rails, will be 1 435 metres, the predominant gauge used worldwide. It allows for greater speeds and higher levels of comfort and safety, and for state-of-the-art technology to be easily imported.
Two routes
There are two planned routes: south-north and west-east. The south-north route starts in the Park Station precinct and goes north underground to Rosebank for six kilometres. From there the line goes five kilometres to a station within the Sandton business district. Shortly after Sandton the train appears on the surface and crosses the M1, heading towards Marlboro Station, around four kilometres from Sandton.
After Marlboro, the train heads further north, passing over the N3 and running along the western bank of the Jukskei River for 13 kilometres until it reaches Midrand. It stops at a station in the Centurion central business district, just north of Centurion Lake.
Pretoria Station is up next, 11 kilometres from Centurion; it will be adjacent the existing Pretoria Station. Here the Gautrain will link to the Blue Train and other Metrorail services. The line will then run east for six kilometres, mainly within the existing rail system, to a station in Hatfield.
The west-east route will take commuters from the Sandton Station, via Marlboro, then east for 15 kilometres to a station in Rhodesfield in Kempton Park. From there it will pass underneath the R24 and head for an underground station surfacing in the airport terminal buildings.
Expropriation of properties
Some 1 056 properties along the route of the Gautrain will either be fully or partially affected by the construction of the train. Almost 400 of these are residential, of which 120 will require full expropriation. The remaining 280 properties will require partial expropriation (a small portion of the property), or have a servitude registered over them (a tunnel excavated beneath them).
About 656 business properties are due to be expropriated and relocated.
Most of the properties up for expropriation are in the Tshwane area, according to the Gautrain spokesperson, Barbara Jensen. Ekurhuleni is next in line for expropriations, with Joburg having the least number. The suburbs of Rhodesfield, Cresslawn and Spartan in Ekurhuleni will be most affected.
Expropriations in Centurion are still uncertain, Jensen says. "In the Centurion area the process is not at an expropriation phase yet as we are still awaiting the decision on the variant alignment in that area."
Construction of the Gautrain is expected to begin in April. The draft final EMP can be viewed at a number of venues.
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