N1 South closed again

2010-03-11 07:41

Pretoria - The N1 South highway in Pretoria was closed to motorists on Thursday morning for safety reasons, the City of Tshwane said.

"The N1 direction south has been closed again due to the dismantling of the crane on the N1 at Atterbury Road," said spokesperson Console Tleane.

"It was found not to be safe to have the route opened while dismantling is taking place."

Traffic from the N4 West will be diverted to the city centre and will not be allowed onto the N1 South.

The Atterbury bridge was also closed to traffic.

"The bridge is no longer safe. Motorists are advised to use alternative routes."

Motorists should add between 45 minutes and an hour to their travelling time.

Accident

This was after a truck transporting iron rods plunged into a cement-mixing truck and three other vehicles before smashing into a crane at around 17:00 on Wednesday.

The body of one man was found trapped underneath one of the trucks and three other people were injured in the accident.

"Engineers worked throughout the night to stabilise the crane in the danger of [it] falling down," said Tleane.

"It was found that it moved by about a metre. A decision was taken that the best option is to dismantle it and rebuild it again so that no danger is posed to motorists."

In addition, part of the bridge that burnt will be "scraped" and rebuilt, said Tleane.

"We cannot predict how long this exercise is going to take."

- SAPA