In a developing twist to an old story FTW Online has reliably learned that a bypass route critical for abnormal logistics in Durban has been re-opened after a lessee started blocking it off, potentially stopping heavy loads from passing through the port.
Property developers Newlyn Group have consistently claimed that the lease contract they have from Transnet makes no mention of the bypass and its use as the only access point for high-level cargo that can’t pass under the M4 bridge across South Coast Road.
But industry at large, including route clearance consultants and transporters working with project cargo, as well as provincial freight representatives, have maintained that the access way through an area called PX Shed has been in use for decades and should actually be declared a permanent servitude.
In an investigation by Freight & Trading Weekly (see issue #2336 of March 22), at least one source said that the access way had been in use since the 60s and if it was blocked off it would make it impossible to move certain engineering equipment in and out of the port.
But in a spat sparked by Newlyn’s insistence to block off the bypass, high-ranking officials and freight experts currently in the process of arranging to bring a reactor in from Italy for the Sapref refinery in Prospecton appeared to have muscled the lessees into a permanent position of quasi-servitude abeyance.
This comes after one transporter said Newlyn had been told in no uncertain terms to desist from blocking off the access way that allowed project cargo from getting around the bridge alongside the M4 to a crossing point on Solomon Mahlangu Drive.
In addition, said the source, today’s meeting with concerns working with Sapref had led to a determination that the bypass be tarred and that other formalisation measures be instituted.
“It’s a pity that it had to come to this,” the source said, “as this bypass is of national importance for the adequate functioning of a port that serves refineries and other crucial concerns required to run South Africa.”
