The Johannesburg Ring Road is a set of

freeways 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 i ...

that circle the city of

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 Demo ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and service the

City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite services for the city. Z ...

. The entire

Ring Road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...

is an e-toll highway (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 ...

) and is approximately 83 km long.

History

Construction on the Ring Road began in the late 1960s. Sections of the Eastern Bypass first opened in 1971 while the last section of the Southern Bypass opened in 1986. The Ring Road had two major aims when it was built: to allow traffic not destined for Johannesburg to bypass the city along a number of high-speed freeways in quick and easy fashion and also to allow for the mobility of

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

South African Army The South African Army is the principal land warfare force of South Africa, a part of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), along with the South African Air Force, South African Navy and South African Military Health Service. ...

to defend the state from hostile neighbours or to quell violence in black

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

during a state of emergency. Johannesburgmap-ringroad

The Route

The Road is composed of three

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 ...

s that converge on the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

, and form an loop around Johannesburg. The 3 freeways that create the Ring Road include the N3 Eastern Bypass, the

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 ...

and the N12 Southern Bypass. The entire road was built with

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

and is mostly 8 lanes wide throughout (4 lanes in either direction), with parts having up to 12 lanes wide in some areas (6 lanes in either direction), the Johannesburg

is frequently clogged with traffic. The main intersections that complete the ring road include the

Elands Interchange Eland may refer to: Animals *''Taurotragus'', a genus of antelope ** Common eland of East and Southern Africa ** Giant eland of Central and Western Africa Places * Eland, Wisconsin, United States * An old spelling of Elland, West Yorkshire * El ...

, that connects the N3 Eastern Bypass with the N12 Southern Bypass, the

Diepkloof Interchange Diepkloof is a large zone of Soweto township in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is also sometimes referred to as Diepmeadow, if considered as a single township with the nearby Meadowlands (although there is Orlando Orlando () is a ...

, that connects the N12 Southern Bypass with the

and finally the

Buccleuch Interchange Buccleuch may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places Australia * Buccleuch County, an administrative division in New South Wales, Australia * Buccleuch, South Australia, a small locality and railway station * County of Buccleuch, an administrative division i ...

connecting the

with the N3 Eastern Bypass.

References

Streets and roads of Johannesburg Ring roads in South Africa Johannesburg Ring Road National Roads in South Africa Toll roads in South Africa {{SouthAfrica-road-stub