N1 (South Africa)

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Route map of the N1

[edit] Route

The N1 is a South African National Road, running from Cape Town to Beit Bridge on the border with Zimbabwe. It is also the main road link between Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The N1 starts as a freeway in the Cape Town Central Business District and moves north-east out of the city, through the metropolitan area, to the town of Paarl before passing through the Huguenot Tunnel. This first section is freeway. After Worcester, major towns along the route include Touws River, Beaufort West, and Colesberg, before the road reaches Bloemfontein, where it becomes freeway again and forms the Bloemfontein Western Bypass.

Other towns and cities along the route between here and Johannesburg include Winburg and Kroonstad. Just south of the Vaal River, the road becomes freeway again as it passes Vanderbijlpark in the Vaal Triangle. The road fans out into wider freeway as it forms the Johannesburg Ring Road N1 Western Bypass or "Concrete Highway." After cutting a swathe through Johannesburg's western suburbs, the road moves north to Pretoria, where it becomes part of South Africa's busiest road^{[citation needed]} (southern hemisphere's busiest^{[citation needed]}), the Ben Schoeman Highway, carrying some 300,000 vehicles every day between the country's largest city and its administrative capital.

At Pretoria, the road forms the Pretoria Eastern Bypass, where it intersects the R21 highway, before moving northwards to Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg). After this, the road passes through Louis Trichardt and Musina before ending at Beit Bridge. After Beit Bridge, the road is no longer called the N1 as it enters Zimbabwe.

Various sections of the N1 are tolled. Motorist pay as much as US$40 between Johannesburg and Beit Brigde depending on the size of the vehicle, heavy truck drivers can pay as much as US$250 on the same distance. But motorist can reduce this by using alternative routes such as the old N1 (now called the R101) which passes through the center of some small towns on the way.

The N1 provides a high-quality, high-speed link between the north and south of South Africa, most notably Johannesburg and Pretoria (a distance of some 60 kilometres) and Johannesburg and Cape Town (a distance of some 1400 kilometres).

The N1 forms the first section of the famed Cape to Cairo Road. President Thabo Mbeki wanted to develop this highway to the major cities in Zimbabwe such as Bulawayo to the North West of Beit Bridge and Harare to the North or even beyond, but it is understood that Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, wouldn't agree to this as Mbeki was also going to reap from the toll gates that were going to be erected along the routes. However the authenticity of this couldn't be proved as some of these discussions are not reported, especially among the African leaders.