The Huguenot Tunnel is a

toll tunnel A toll tunnel is a road tunnel where a monetary charge (or ''toll'') is required to pass through. List of toll tunnels United States Alaska Maryland Massachusetts Michigan / Ontario, Canada New Jersey / New York New York Texas V ...

near

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. It extends the N1 national road through the

Du Toitskloof mountains The Du Toitskloof Mountains (Dutoitsberge) are a range in the Cape Fold Belt in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The highest point is Du Toits Peak (Dutoitspiek) () which is the highest seaward facing peak in the Cape Fold Belt ran ...

that separate

Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

from

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

, providing a route that is safer, faster (between 15 and 26

minute The minute is a unit of time usually equal to (the first sexagesimal fraction) of an hour, or 60 seconds. In the UTC time standard, a minute on rare occasions has 61 seconds, a consequence of leap seconds (there is a provision to insert a neg ...

s) and shorter (by 11 km) than the old Du Toitskloof Pass travelling over the mountain.

History

View of new road into Huguenot Toll Tunnel, South Africa

An idea for a tunnel through the Du Toitskloof Mountains was conceived in the 1930s but was put on hold due to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The idea developed into a pass over the mountains, the Du Toitskloof pass, using the labour of Italian prisoners of war between 1942 and 1945 and continued with ordinary labour until its completion in 1948.

Geological survey A geological survey is the systematic investigation of the geology beneath a given piece of ground for the purpose of creating a geological map or model. Geological surveying employs techniques from the traditional walk-over survey, studying outc ...

s and

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

started in 1973, and excavation followed in 1984, tunneling from both ends using drilling and blasting.

Construction

There were two phases to the tunneling, the first a pilot tunnel to examine the routes geographical obstacles. The second phase bored a 5 m tunnel through

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

rock as well as the construction of portals, drainage and ventilation tunnels. The two drilling heads met with an error of only 3 mm over its entire 3.9 km length. The tunnel was finally opened on 18 March 1988. The tunnel is maintained by Tolcon, a subsidiary of the

Murray & Roberts Murray & Roberts Holdings Ltd. is a South African-based engineering and mining contractor. It is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange. The Group delivers its capabilities into three global primary market sectors the resources, industrial, ene ...

construction company. The tunnel was constructed by

Hochtief Hochtief AG is a German construction company based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.Concor Concor Holdings (Proprietary) Limited. is a South African construction and mining services company. It is active throughout Southern Africa, involved in mining, civil engineering, building and road projects. Concor returned as an independent br ...

Current plans

Currently the tunnel carries one lane of traffic in each direction. Plans are underway to open a second unfinished tunnel, the "northern bore", to carry eastbound traffic. This will allow for two lanes of traffic in each direction, with each tunnel carrying traffic in one direction only. In 2002, traffic peaks occurred during

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

(a record on 26 April 18 200 vehicles) and the December

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...

holidays (12 000 vehicles per day).

Toll

The toll as proclaimed on 1 March 2019 was (in

South African Rand The South African rand, or simply the rand, ( sign: R; code: ZAR) is the official currency of the Southern African Common Monetary Area: South Africa, Namibia (alongside the Namibian dollar), Lesotho (alongside the Lesotho loti) and Eswatin ...

): * ''Light Vehicles'': R44.50 * ''2-axle heavy vehicles'': R118 * ''3 and 4-axle heavy vehicles'': R185 * ''5 and more-axle heavy vehicles'': R300 The tunnel has 13

video camera A video camera is an optical instrument that captures videos (as opposed to a movie camera, which records images on film). Video cameras were initially developed for the television industry but have since become widely used for a variety of oth ...

s that feed into an automatic

incident detection system Incident may refer to: * A property of a graph in graph theory * ''Incident'' (film), a 1948 film noir * Incident (festival), a cultural festival of The National Institute of Technology in Surathkal, Karnataka, India * Incident (Scientology), a ...

, which can sound

alarm devices An alarm device is a mechanism that gives an audible, visual or other kind of alarm signal to alert someone to a problem or condition that requires urgent attention. Alphabetical musical instruments Etymology The word ''alarm'' comes from t ...

for any of the following conditions: * Stopped vehicles * Fast and slow-moving traffic * Traffic queues *

Wrong-way driving Wrong-way driving (WWD), also known as contraflow driving, is the act of driving a motor vehicle against the direction of traffic. It can occur on either one- or two-way roads, as well as in parking lots and parking garages, and may be due ...

Sources

Press release
from th
SA National Roads Agency

Traficon NV

External links

{{Coord, 33, 44, 2, S, 19, 5, 47, E, display=title, region:ZA Toll tunnels in Africa Tunnels in South Africa N1 (South Africa)