The Eastern Cape Department of Roads and Public Works (DRPW) of the Eastern Cape Government proposes to use existing Borrow Pits for gravel road maintenance and construction projects located throughout the region.

 

Gravel roads weather over relatively short periods of time and require periodical re-gravelling. The gravel roads identified for re-gravelling display defects such as corrugation, ravelling, and exposed oversized stones. The roads to be re-gravelled provide access to remote villages and the poor quality of the roads have a significant impact on the lives of the local residents as alternative routes to nearby towns are often too far to travel and add extra costs to travel for individuals.

 

In order to re-gravel the specified roads, large amounts of material is needed for mostly the wearing course of the road. In some cases the material is of such a nature that it can be grid rolled to the appropriate size, and in others the material would be crushed due to the physical properties of the material. Quality control of material would include blending harder materials with fines to obtain an optimal material quality. The extensions of existing Borrow Pits for the collection of materials for the specified roads is being proposed.

 

In terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (Act 28 of 2002 as amended), the Minister must grant a prospecting or mining right if among others the mining “will not result in unacceptable pollution, ecological degradation or damage to the environment”.

 

Unless an Environmental Authorisation can be granted following the evaluation of an Environmental Impact Assessment and an Environmental Management Programme report in terms of the National Environmental Management Act (Act 107 of 1998) (NEMA), it cannot be concluded that the said activities will not result in unacceptable pollution, ecological degradation or damage to the environment.

 

In terms of section 16 (3) (b) of the EIA Regulations, 2014, any report submitted as part of an application must be prepared in a format that may be determined by the Competent Authority and in terms of section 17 (1) (c) the competent Authority must check whether the application has taken into account any minimum requirements applicable or instructions or guidance provided by the competent authority to the submission of applications.

 

Thus, DRPW is required to apply for an Environmental Authorisation (EA) for the use of existing unlicensed gravel Borrow Pits. Once the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has given Environmental Authorisation, the DRPW can extract road construction material from the licensed Borrow Pits for gravel road construction and maintenance projects, with the implementation of an EMP and specific conditions of authorisation.

The selection of Borrow Pits is subject to criteria including material type, location, access, surrounding land use, slope, erosion, hydrology and sensitive vegetation. The Borrow Pits will be used exclusively for the upgrade/re-gravelling of the road they are situated adjacent to and were selected due to their acceptable sensitivity levels. If approved, this EMP will be the Management Plan for the excavation of material from the proposed Borrow Pits and the rehabilitation thereof.

CURRENT  PROJECTS

Authority

Client

Authority Ref No

EAS Job No

Project Type

Phase

Date

Document Links

DMRE

Sarah Baartman DM

EC00168BP

1788-BCR

BAR/EMP

Final BAR

07 July 2022

Link

DMRE

Sarah Baartman DM

EC00167BP

1788-DBN

BAR/EMP

Final BAR

13 July 2022

Link