N3 road (South Africa)

Template: Infobox trunk road / Maintenance / ZA -N

Provinces:

• KwaZulu -Natal
• Free State
• Mpumalanga
• Gauteng

The National Route 3 (abbreviated N3 ) is a national road in South Africa, which connects Johannesburg and Durban. Johannesburg is the financial and economic hub of South Africa, Durban South Africa is during the most important port and one of the largest in the southern hemisphere and simultaneously holiday destination. About the harbor in Durban, a large part of the exports and imports of goods from Johannesburg is settled. Therefore, the N3 is a very busy street and has a high volume of traffic, even though the distance is almost 600 km.

Sections

The N3 is divided into twelve sections, starting with Section 1 in Durban and ends with section 12 in Johannesburg. On the route to the cities of Heidelberg, Villiers, Warden, Harrismith, Van Reenen, Ladysmith, Estcourt, Mooi River, Howick and Pietermaritzburg. Most of these cities are now avoided on bypasses.

In Johannesburg, the road officially starts at the Buccleuch intersection, the point at which the N3, which meet the N1 and M1. It leads east of Johannesburg past as part of the N3 Eastern Bypass and then proceeds towards Heidelberg. Continuing south leads the N3 on another bypass around Harrismith in the foothills of the Drakensberg. From here the road drops sharply and crosses the Van Reenen Pass in the hilly landscape of the KwaZulu- Natal Midlands.

Then the N3 crosses a grassy landscape to Moor River, which is used for the dairy industry, and leads in the Midmar dam near Howick over. In Pietermaritzburg, the road drops back strong and leads to Townhill around. From here, the road runs on an 80 -kilometer-long straight towards the coast, past the outskirts of Pinetown and Westville, Durban. At its end, the N3 results in the Durban Central Business District and is on the Durban Outer Ring Road connecting to the N2.

Alternative route

At the places at which the N3 was added, the old route have been renamed to R103. The R103 there in three places:

In general, resorting to the R103 to bypass the toll booths on the N3; However, there is an exception in this case, the Tugela East Toll Plaza, which is located on the R103 at the intersection of two streets north of Ladysmith.

Within Durban, most of the old N3 was renamed the M13 instead of the usual designation R103. The R103 branches off at Winston Park Subdivision of the M13.

Planned route conversions

There are plans to move the section of line between the toll booth of Tugela and the beginning of the toll section near Warden. This would mean that the new road would lead through the De Beers passport and no longer via Van Reenen. Thus, the N3 would be shorter by 14 kilometers. However, the population of Harrismith ung Van Reenen is very against it because they are economically dependent on the through traffic. For the new route, the fact that the slope is too strong for a national road.

Accounts of the N3 Toll Concession According to the new bypass is only required if the traffic volume reaches 13,900 vehicles per day - currently the traffic volume is 11,000 vehicles daily. According to projections, this will be the case in 2014.