N1 (South Africa)
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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.
[edit] Route
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 (where it ranges from 6 to 8 lane freeway), to the town of Paarl before passing through the Huguenot Tunnel (the section through the tunnel is tolled). 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, this section south of Johannesburg is a tolled section. 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). This section north of Pretoria is a tolled highway. 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 Bridge 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 37 miles/ 60km) and Johannesburg and Cape Town (a distance of some 870 miles/ 1400km).
The N1 forms the first section of the famed Cape to Cairo Road.
[edit] Old Route
In numerous places in South Africa, specifically near major cities where the old N1 route as been completely altered to accommodate new freeway standards. These old routes always carry the designation of R101 and are often alternative routes to newer, tolled highways. An example is the R101 over Du Toitskloof Pass where the new N1 highway bypasses the pass almost altogether by use of the Huguenot Tunnel.
[edit] External links
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