HIGH ON the priority list for the new Durban harbour car terminal is deciding the best access point for the project, according to Portnet marketing manager, Ronnie Holtshausen.
One of our agreements with the City officials was a traffic impact study, he said. We need to decide where the best location for the gate is, as it disgorges truck-trailer transport units into the city's traffic flow. This will require an analysis of the destinations of the car-carrying vehicles, the capacity of expected movements (by ship-load or by day, for example) - and getting the whole lot to interact with the city traffic models.
We need to be able to ensure a smooth movement of our transport modes, said Holtshausen, with the road transporters getting the best access to the main routes out of the city.
But this we have to do without throwing a traffic-jam spanner in the flow of traffic passing outside the gate. The two current choices are into Point Road on the eastern side of the car terminal quays, or north into the Embankment area at the city-end of the docks.
The study - due to go to outside consultants - is expected to be about a two-week exercise.
