Sani Pass to be tarred

[DIPSLICK]

it will be sad if they do it, went up in december full mist zero visability epic day, we drove all the way there there to do it, for the experience

[Terminator]

Check this amateur footage of a descent of Sani we did a while back

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=328240700531111&set=vb.100000355522081&type=3&theater

[dirtrider]

Will not see a tar road within the next 10 years !! Don't panic .

[Tractor]

The cost of the project is just ludicrous - R887 million according to the article; absolutely crazy! The maintenance that has to be factored into the general upkeep of the tar once completed is also not mentioned. I wouldn't worry too much, if the lack of maintenance and the size of the potholes here in Jhb is anything to go by it will only take a couple of seasons before the tar road is converted back to gravel

[arendoog]

If Oliviershoek pass is anything to go by ,there will be no road when they dig it up and leave it like that .The 800mil or so is only for the bribe anyway

[DIPSLICK]

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[jaxtun]

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so eloquent

[Helpmytrap]

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so eloquent

And straight to the point.

[DIPSLICK]

And straight to the point.

it was a ooops :blush:

[jaxtun]

it was a ooops :blush:

at least it wasn't a pointless post

[Stretch]

What pissed me off about that article was the small-minded, selfish attitude of the tour operators acting like they own the road and want to hold back essential progress for the whole region just because it doesn't suit them. Imagine we still had Sir Lowries pass or Van Reenens pass forced to remain dirt.

 

 

I think you are being a little bit ignorant here. Scroll up a few posts from your comment and look at that pic of the snow. Now imagine that was tar and iced up...now imagine the carnage that will ensue with unroadworthy vehicles coming down...the only thing that is preventing this now is the fact that is not tar

 

Next point...have a look at your local R roads...how well maintained are they? (if you are in the western cape then look at the rest of the country) how much expense do you think will need to be incurred to keep the sani pass tar safe...bearing in mind that it is one of a handful of roads in this country that will be subject to water seeping in the base layer, freezing, expanding the base layer and then defrosting EVERY day during winter...after 1 winter that tar will be broken up, pot holed and more dangerous than when it was dirt....Sani Pass is by no stretch of the imagination anything remotely close to sir lowry's pass

 

OH - and do yourself a favour and take a drive down or up oliviershoek pass now - it is an absolute nightmare and people have basically stopped using it and that is not even remotely close to what sani pass is like

[Stretch]

but then as multiple people have mentioned this has been approved already ten times over but it never gets off the ground, so i hope to hell this is just another of those times

[mazambaan]

Hmmm methinks its related to lucrative jobs for pals, fees for designers and the next phase of the Lesotho Highlands project being in the Mokhotlong area.

[ricochet_rabbit]

mmm, I wonder who'll get the contract for the grit spreader - if they have thought of that...black ice will make that road deadly once tarred.

[tombeej]

I think you are being a little bit ignorant here....

 

Rubbish. I'm in that area a lot of the time. The Sani Pass Hotel is a client of ours. The pass as it stands right now is a serious hazard when it rains, or worse, when it snows. Unroadworthy vehicles are going up there every day in long lines - I'm talking about all the taxies as an example. The only thing that prevents them coming down is the couple of times a year when the pass is snowed in. Otherwise those taxis fly down there no matter what the conditions.

 

I've personally been on that mountain when it's been snowed in, and watched villagers who live at the top being dumped out of the taxis halfway up, with all their luggage and made to walk through the snow and sludge. I spent an afternoon once helping an old gogo drag her suitcases up to the top. Took hours and I was fit. She would never have made it. Not to mention how difficult it is for them to access basic services like healthcare, or just to buy food from supermarket.

 

And dirt roads take far more effort to maintain and keep open than tar roads. That's why people invented tar roads FFS. Do you know how much time, effort and money it takes to keep that dirt road open for general traffic? It is far more expensive to maintain a dirt road than it does to maintain a tar road.

 

Next, go look at all the major Lesotho passes that have been tarred over the years. Mafika Lisiu pass, Butha-Buthe pass, etc. They're in excellent condition and have transformed the lives of the people in the area. And when it's raining or snowing, they remain open for longer and are exponentially safer.

 

This is not a 4x4 track. It's a national road. It is not for the exclusive use of a few wealthy outsiders who own 4x4s but don't know how to use them and therefore think that this is supposed to be a 4x4 track. It is a critical regional artery that links two countries. The locals have been desperate to get the pass sorted out once and for all, and to make it a safe place to go. Only outsiders and local tour operators want to hold it back.

 

The travesty is not that people want to tar it now - it's that it wasn't done a long time ago.

[leona]

I haven't been, I'm planning to go next month or early july. i can see both sides. this last post was very well put and makes a lot of sense. yes id be disappointed if i pitched up and it was tar but if i think about it, I'm not sure why id be disappointed. i want to ride up it to ride up it and to see the views. i cant really see how the surface will effect my experience that much.

 

im not sure how the maintenance would work. i don't know that id have thought it takes more to maintain a dirt road but I'm not knowledgeable enough on it to comment really. i know from home (england) that we had a local road resurfaced fairly cheaply and had a really cold winter after and the surface turned to crap. if they tar it thereby encouraging different road users and then don't maintain it, that seems to me potentially more dangerous?