1. IMIESA August 2015 29
CAPSA 2015 | Sanral Profile
More than
just roads
For Sanral, roads are
not just roads; they
are opportunity and
art. Nazir Alli, CEO of
Sanral, sits down with
IMIESA to discuss
his vision for the
country’s arteries
and the impact
they have on job
creation, economics,
and aesthetics.
BY BEATRIX KNOPJES
A
lli emphasises the impor-
tance of our road network for
social, as well as economic, con-
nection. The two are inexorably
intertwined. “Roads provide us with the
mobility that we require both for freight and
for people. Without good road infrastruc-
ture, the cost of transport increases, mak-
ing it difficult to connect socially.”
Quality
The state of South Africa’s road network is
inconsistent. “It is much more difficult to
move from one place to another on a poor
road than a good road. Roads are – to my
mind – the backbone of the economy. They
play a very important role in terms of our
communities. We still rely heavily on road
transport for our economy – especially within
Africa. Our network is far better than on the
rest of our continent; the cost of transport
in other countries on our continent is higher
simply because they don't have roads. If we
did not have quality roads, we would not be
able to get goods to the market place. Roads
are not just roads; they are the backbone of
our quality of life,” stresses Alli.
South Africa has an extensive network of
roads spanning 750 000 km. According to
Alli, only about 153 000 km of those roads
are surfaced. The remaining 600 000 km
are gravel roads in poor conditions. “We
want to upgrade those roads and maintain
them, which impacts the economy and job
creation. We have a backlog of R197 bil-
lion just on road maintenance, never mind
surfacing all the gravel roads,” states Alli.
Sustainability
Sanral is committed to keeping the arteries
of South Africa’s economy in good condi-
tion, without harming the environment. This
is achieved through adherence to legisla-
tion. For Sanral, it is not just a question of
compliance with the necessary legislation,
but the spirit which they should embody in
all the works that they do. “We are not only
concerned about the ‘green’ issues in the
environment but also the ‘brown’ issues.
Often, our roads pass through built-up
areas. In such environments, we use the
appropriate kinds of surfacing to reduce
noise, rather than relying on having to build
big walls and noise barriers. South Africa
has made large advances in surfacing,
especially with research that Sanral has
sponsored through the CSIR and universi-
ties such as Stellenbosch and Pretoria.”
Innovation
According to Alli, innovation in infrastruc-
ture is a gradual process, influenced by
the creativity of the engineers designing
any particular project. “These innovations
happen over a longer period of time. They
are not comparable to IT for example, where
software is developed on a regular basis.
The innovation also comes in the form of
the efficiency we bring both in the design
and the construction methodologies that
one uses, but Moores’ Law does not apply
to infrastructure.”
Road building is a means to address skills
shortages and unemployment issues that
are rife in South Africa. Alli elaborates, “Our
challenge, in South Africa, is a severe short-
age of skills and trained people, yet we have
an unemployment rate of 25%.
ABOVE Nazir Alli, CEO of Sanral

2. IMIESA August 2015 31
“We cannot build our way out of congestion.”
Nazir Alli, CEO, Sanral
CAPSA 2015 | Sanral Profile
BELOW ITS plays an important role in
managing Sanral’s road network
“We believe that we are addressing this
issue, as a company, through the scholar-
ships and bursaries that we give, but, more
importantly, we contribute to South Africa
by sponsoring chairs at universities, which
we have been doing for over 10 years,”
he adds.
Intelligent roads
An intelligent transport system (ITS) plays an
integral role in traffic management and road
maintenance. Alli emphasises, “We cannot
build our way out of congestion. We need
to encourage people to move out of private
transport. ITS plays a very important role for
us, in terms of being able to manage traffic on
our roads. By doing this properly, we find that
we can increase the capacity of our roads by
up to 25%.”
The efficient use of infrastructure negates
the need to simply build more roads. Sanral
is not just the provider of infrastructure, as
it was in the past, it also manages that infra-
structure now, and ITS assists in this process.
Alli explains, “A visible benefit of ITS is that, as
soon as there is an incident on the road, assis-
tance is provided to those people much faster
than waiting for a phone call to be made.”
Maintenance
Every millimetre of Sanral’s road network
throughout South Africa is covered by their
routine maintenance contractors, who are pre-
dominantly Small Medium Micro Enterprises.
On a Sanral road, you should not have a
pothole for longer than 48 hours. Says Alli,
“We provide a pothole-free national road net-
work for South Africa. We regularly patrol the
roads to ensure that all of the road furniture
is in place and inspect the quality of the road
surface itself.”
Peer recognition
With Sanral’s recent win and commendation
at the 2015 Fulton Awards, Alli announces,
“We always appreciate peer recognition. Our
infrastructure is a form of public art, and
forms the landmarks that foreign visitors com-
ment on most frequently.” Awards such as
these encourage innovation, and highlight the
aesthetic value of infrastructure. It is this high
standard that Sanral wishes to continue.
Infrastructure is a form of public art