Chapter 11 - Sedibeng District Municipality

The transportation of abnormal goods is highly dangerous and has a huge impact on
other road users, communities and infrastructure. Super-loads usually travel at snail’s
pace and traffic officials are requested to accompany vehicles for the duration of the
trip to ensure minimum interruption of traffic flow .
If the vehicle including the load meets one of the follow ing, then it is classified as an
abnormal load: at least 26 ton w eight; at least 2.6 m w idth, or at least 4.3 m height.
Route planning is carried out by the applicant. There is detail planning of the route for
the transportation of the extra-heavy freight through the national road netw ork. Tow ns
and cities along the route are notified in advance. Depending on the magnitude of the
load traffic officials may be required to escorts the abnormal load. Traffic officials will
only escort the load w ithin their municipal boundaries. Therefore, loads traversing
several municipal boundaries and Provinces require involvement of the respective
traffic officials. Further, abnormal loads traversing Provinces require a permit from
each Province.
The criteria for vehicle escort are as follow s:3.3 m w idth – 1 escort; 3.8 m w idth – 2
escort; and 4.8 m w idth – traffic police escort.
In areas w here travelling is difficult and traffic may be severely affected, it is often the
responsibility of the transporter to construct special lay-byes onto w hich the heavy
vehicles are draw n from time to time to allow for passing traffic.
Applicants are required to apply for a permit for each consignment through the
provincial department of transport in Pretoria. The permit details the destination, type
of load carried and the route to be follow ed, and the estimated w eight. The
information must be fairly accurate in order for the traffic officers to approve the
abnormal vehicle and load through the various municipal boundaries. The duration for
the application of a permit varies from one to three days.
The common routes for NATRO from the GautengProvince are N3 (Durban), N1/R59
Cape Tow n, N4 to Botsw ana ultimately Zambia, and N17 to RichardsBay.
The abnormal load can only be transported during w eekday from 6:00 to 18:00, but
not during peak periods. The industry is advocating for the review of this rule w hich is
based on an outdated TRH 11 guideline document. Hence the CSIR and DoT are
currently review ing the TRH 11 guideline document that w ill further improve the
process.
11.1.4 Hazardous Materials
Many mineral inputs that are integral factors of industrial production are poisonous,
flammable, explosive, corrosive or in other w ays potentially harmful.Strict government
regulations have been imposed to control the transportation of hazardous materials
and substances. The classification systems for hazardous materials have been
implemented. In doing this, DoT adopted the recommendations of the United Nations.
Vehicles carrying hazardous materials must be identified by the correct signage and a
trained driver must carry documentation to supplement the information on the sign.
The legislation for the transportation of hazardous materials is included in Chapter 8
of the National Road Traffic Act, 1996, as well as other additional Sections and
Regulations contained in the Act. The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) has
SDM DITP, 2008 to 2013 162 31 Aug 2010