Brace yourselves, Jozi cats, traffic jams are going to be yet another addition to your peak traffic travel time. Extensive road maintenance will be taking place on the M1 highway later in February of this year.

Although construction has already begun on the M1 and bridges from Killarney and Crown Interchange, according to the Johannesburg Roads Agency:

From 27 February 2016, you should expect lane restrictions and closures. This will have a significant impact on travel time, if you use the M1 Freeway.

Eish, baba. But how long will this road closure / traffic jam / travel nightmare last for? Here’s some details:

Lane closures and restrictions: Published by the JRA

Phase 2: 27 February 2016 to 12 August 2016
Two stage implementation phase: 27 February to 3 April 2016
Northbound carriageway reduced to two lanes. Southbound carriageway to remain 3 lanes.
3 April to August 2016: Southbound carriageway reduced to two lanes. Both
directions to be limited to two lanes. Oxford Road on ramp onto the M1 southbound to be closed at Ettrick Road.
Phase 3: 13 August 2015 to 31 December 2016
Northbound and southbound carriageways reduced to two lanes per direction. Oxford Road off ramp from the M1 travelling northbound to be closed.

Double Decker

From 8 February 2016 to 6 July 2017 limited to the following times:
Week day closures: either left or right-side of carriageway from 9:30am to 2:30pm.

Week day night closures:
One lane closures: 7pm to 8pm and 4am to 5am
Two lane closures: 8pm to 4am
Three lane closures: either left or right-side of carriage way from 11:30pm to 3:30am.

Weekend closures:

One lane closure: Saturday 5am to 7pm
Two lane closures: Saturday 7pm to 5am Monday
Three lane closures: Saturday 11:30pm to 5am, Sunday 10pm to 3:30am Monday.

The aim for this extensive maintenance which will cost around R210 million is just the usual road requirements, to make your journey just that little bit safer. Here’s a message for you though:

Construction projects will, unfortunately, result in short-term inconvenience to motorists, residents and the business community. The JRA will, however, attempt to keep disruptions to a minimum, increase traffic management and provide for alternative routes while construction is underway.

Please be patient, remain courteous and obey traffic signals during this short period of disruption. The long-term benefits of a world-class M1 Freeway bridge network will far outweigh the temporary inconvenience during the rehabilitation phase.

Wheels24 were kind enough to provide a link to a pdf of alternative routes:

[source: wheels24]