The Ben Schoeman Freeway or Ben Schoeman Highway is the main

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

between

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

and

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

, and consists of portions of the M1, N1, and N14. Opened in 1968, it is named after a former Minister of Transport

Ben Schoeman Barend Jacobus "Ben" Schoeman (19 January 1905 – 2 April 1986) was a South African politician of the National Party prominent during the apartheid era. He served as the Minister of Labour from 1948 to 1954, and the Minister of Transport from ...

, and is undoubtedly the busiest road in South Africa. N1roadsouthboundatmidrand

Route

The Ben Schoeman Highway begins under the designation of the M1, just north of the Corlett Drive exit, where the M1 is no longer under the maintenance of the

Johannesburg Roads Agency The Johannesburg Roads Agency is a department of the Government of Gauteng. JRA began on business on 1 January 2001 with the City of Johannesburg being the main shareholder. The JRA's plans, designs, constructs, operates, controls, rehabilit ...

. South of Corlett Drive, the M1 is known as the De Villiers Graaff Motorway. The M1 ends at the Buccleuch interchange with the N3 and N1 highways (

Johannesburg Ring Road The Johannesburg Ring Road is a set of freeways that circle the city of Johannesburg, South Africa and service the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. The entire Ring Road is an e-toll highway (with open road tolling) and is appr ...

). The Ben Schoeman Highway then becomes the N1 and passes through

Midrand Midrand is a former municipality in central Gauteng, South Africa. It is situated in-between Centurion and Sandton and now forms part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. History Midrand was established as a municipality in 1 ...

and Centurion. In Centurion, at the Brakfontein interchange, the N1 meets the N14 and they switch highways, with the N1 becoming the eastwards highway (

Pretoria Bypass The Pretoria Ring Road, also known as the Pretoria Bypass, is a collection of two bypasses that together form a partial ring road around the city of Pretoria, South Africa. It consists of a section of the N1 Highway (known as the Eastern Bypass) ...

), heading to the eastern suburbs of Pretoria and to Polokwane. The N14 leaves the eastwards highway and becomes the Ben Schoeman Highway northwards. The entire N1 section, from the Buccleuch Interchange to the Brakfontein Interchange, is a toll road, part of the Gauteng e-toll system (with

open road tolling Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll booths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The ma ...

). From the Brakfontein Interchange, the Ben Schoeman Highway continues northwards as the N14 directly into

, ending where it meets the

R101 R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air Mi ...

at Kgosi Mampuru Street (formerly Potgieter Street) in Salvokop, south of Pretoria Central. The highway was in fact opened in the reverse order, beginning in 1968 with the section from Potgieter Street to just south of Brakfontein. The second section to be opened ran from Brakfontein to just south of the then

Halfway House A halfway house is an institute for people with criminal backgrounds or substance use disorder problems to learn (or relearn) the necessary skills to re-integrate into society and better support and care for themselves. As well as serving as a ...

. The final section linked up the highway to the Buccleuch Interchange and Old Pretoria Main Road.

Maintenance and upgrades

The Ben Schoeman Highway is maintained from just north of the Corlett Drive (M30) exit before Sandton until the N14/N1 split at the Brakfontein Interchange in Centurion by

SANRAL The South African National Roads Agency SOC Ltd or SANRAL is a South African parastatal responsible for the management, maintenance and development of South Africa's proclaimed National Road network which includes many (but not all) National ("N" ...

. However, only the portion between the Buccleuch and Brakfontein interchanges is tolled. From Brakfontein Interchange to Potgieter Street (R101) in Pretoria, the highway is maintained by the Gauteng Provincial Government. Two major upgrades have been done on the Ben Schoeman Highway, which was initially 2 lanes in each direction from Potgieter Street to Corlett Drive. a) The first upgrade in the late 1980s saw the section between Buccleuch and Brakfontein Interchanges upgraded to a minimum of 3 lanes in each direction. The highway was completely rebuilt using concrete. New interchanges were added at the New Road and Samrand Avenue. b) The second major upgrade of the highway, also from Buccleuch interchange to the Brakfontein Interchange was part of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project. The highway was upgraded from 3 lanes to 4 - 5 lanes in each direction, although between the Buccleuch Interchange and the M39 Allandale Road Interchange this has been increased to 6 lanes. Although concrete underlies some of the lanes for heavy/slow traffic, the road surface is now tar for the entire length of the Ben Schoeman Highway. To fund this second upgrade, there are two electronic tolling gantries in each direction of the highway. The Highway has also been upgraded between Corlett Drive and the Buccleuch Interchange, although this section is not tolled, and consists of 3/4 lanes in each direction. Lighting is found along the highway from Brakfontein Interchange to Corlett Drive. The Highway now includes upgraded overhead signage as well as electronic signage. The northern section of the highway between Brakfontein Interchange and Potgieter Street has not been upgraded, although the road has been resurfaced at times. It remains 2 lanes in each direction, does not have central lighting, and does not have any overhead signage. As a result of the Gautrain route, the diamond interchange at Trichardt Street was changed, and so north bound traffic now exits to Sunderland Road and no longer Trichardt Street.

Major interchanges

The two main interchanges on the Ben Schoeman highway are the Buccleuch Interchange (with the N3 Eastern Bypass and

N1 Western Bypass The Western Bypass is a section of the N1 and the Johannesburg Ring Road located in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. Known at the time as the ''Concrete Highway'', the freeway was initially opened in 1975 as a route to avoid the city cen ...

), where the Ben Schoeman Highway changes from M1 to N1 designation, and the Brakfontein Interchange (with the N1 Danie Joubert Freeway - Pretoria Eastern Bypass - and N14 to Krugersdorp), where the Highway changes from N1 to N14 designation. The interchange between the N1 and M39 (formerly the R561), known as the Allandale Interchange, was completely redesigned as part of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project and is the only other free flowing interchange on the Ben Schoeman Highway.

References

{{Reflist N1 (South Africa) Toll roads in South Africa