The upgrading of  Durban Western Freeway on behalf of Ethekwini Municipality has been extended to include the rehabilitation of an additional 15km. This entails extensions to the concrete median barrier plus asphalt rehabilitation, as well as the introduction of a Public Transport Lane. The latter will allow buses, mini bus taxis and metered taxis exclusive unrestricted use of the fast lane in both directions.

Multi-disciplinary consulting engineering firm, Vela VKE, has been tasked with the design and implementation of the Public Transport Lane which will be demarcated by means of red coloured asphalt using an imported, colourless synthetic binder plus locally produced iron oxide

National Asphalt recently appointed Deon Pagel to the position of Business Development Manager. He will be focussing on the future growth, strategic alignment as well as the general marketing and commercial side of the business. National Asphalt has a number of fixed and mobile asphalt plants spread around the north eastern side of the country. This footprint together with the added capacity due to the recent acquisition of Akasia Road Surfacing gives the company the required capacity to service the recent growth within the road sector of the economy.

Says Pagel: “In the short while that I have been with National, I have immediately realised what potential the ‘state of the art mobile plants’ owned by the company bring about. It is literally possible for the company to produce asphalt in nearly any part of the country to the highest technical specifications. The plants are quite amazing, right from “mobility”, self “erection”, through to the actual control rooms, which are really technically at the cutting edge of market.”

National Asphalt’s head office is at Cliffdale outside Durban, with regional offices in Bartlett, Vanderbijlpark, and a satellite office at Bon Accord (Pretoria).  A number of other fixed and mobile sites are dotted across Kwazulu Natal, Mpumalanga, the Freestate and Gauteng.  The intention is to erect an additional plant at Olifantsfontein, with the view of supplying the Raubex contract on the Albertina Sisulu Freeway (R21) between Olifantsfontein and the N1 in Pretoria.

National Asphalt is part of the Raubex Group, which is listed on the JSE. Since the Raubex acquisition of the originally KZN based National Asphalt, the company has grown in leaps and bounds. According to the Managing Director of National Asphalt, Sean Pretorius, the company has a very definite expansion plan for the future. “Our order book is currently looking healthy, however we are now focussing on securing contracts post 2010 – our mobility gives us the capability to secure work on contracts that previously could not be considered for asphalt due to their remoteness” says Pretorius.

National Asphalt was very much in the limelight during the construction of the Western Freeway Upgrade for eThekwini, where red coloured asphalt was used for a dedicated transport lane. This project was undertaken as a consortium between Group 5, Milling Techniks and National Asphalt and it went on to win the coveted Imesa Award in the category Roads and Stormwater in 2008.

With the international trends moving towards a “green environment” the use of warm and recyled asphalt is becoming more prevalent and the company has recently undertaken a number of trials for eThekwini, with the results looking very positive.  “This technology is most definitely going to become more commonly used due the environmental benefits arising there from” adds Pretorius.
National Asphalt is a modern and dynamic company that fits well into the Raubex stable, and it is on track and set to grow quite rapidly over the next five to ten years.