N4 Road (South Africa)

National Roads of South Africa

The N4 is a National Route which forms the South African section of the Walvis Bay to Maputo highway, which links the east and west coasts of Southern Africa. Since the completion of the A2 (the "Trans-Kalahari Highway") through Botswana, the entire route is now a world-class standard highway.

The South African section in the west links Gaborone in Botswana with Pretoria, then further east linking Pretoria with Nelspruit and Maputo in Mozambique.

The eastern section from Pretoria to Middelburg is a dual carriage motorway toll road opened in 1968, with toll gates at Donkerhoek and just east of Middelburg. The freeway from Witbank to Middelburg was one of the first concrete freeways built in South Africa and the Ultra City was the first service station built on the sides of a freeway. At eMalahleni (formerly Witbank), the freeway converges with the N12 from Johannesburg. An alternative route to the N4, known as the R104, runs between Pretoria and Wonderfontein (east of Middelburg). Between Witbank and Middelburg the alternative is the dangerous R555. After Wonderfontein the toll road runs along the old alignment of the N4 until the Lebombo Border Post. From Middelburg to Belfast the N4 is a single carriage way highway with two lanes in both directions, thereafter the N4 is a wide shouldered single carriageway highway. The section east of Middelburg has been significantly improved, including a northern bypass of Nelspruit, and some new grade separated junctions. The N4 east of Pretoria forms part of the Maputo Corridor Toll Route.

Prior to 1990, the N4 used to end at Proefplaas Interchange with the N1. However, two western sections of the N4 now exist.

1. Originally the N4 ran into Pretoria, and then exited on Vom Hagen Ave making its way to Hartbeespoort Dam, before following the R511/R513/R512 to the single carriageway freeway built in the 1980s. All that remains of the N4 is the short 20 km tolled freeway that runs from Vom Hagen Road/R55 junction west of Pretoria, past Attridgeville, and to Hartbeespoort where the road ends. It is clear that the N4 was to continue, but this link from the end of the freeway at Hartbeespoort to the N4 extension west of Hartbeespoort has never been completed, even though it has been planned since the 1980s. An anomaly is the bridge over Hartbeespoort Dam near Kosmos which has the R512 route number, and the two clear deviations off the alignment at either end of the bridge. Where the N4 used to run through Pretoria, this has been renamed the M2 and M4.

2. At Proefplaas Interchange with the N1 the N4 now follows the N1 North as part of the Platinum Toll Highway to just north of Zambezi Drive where it splits off westward towards Rustenburg just before the Pumulani Toll Plaza on the N1. The N4 now bypasses Pretoria through the east and the north as a dual carriage motorway. After Rosslyn the N4 becomes a single carriageway highway, and joins the old R27 alignment at the R512 road to Brits and follows this alignment until just west of Zeerust, where it turns north west towards the Botswana Border. Three new grade separated junctions were built before Rustenburg, together with a new single carriageway bypass of Rustenburg to the south of the town. Thereafter the N4 rejoins the old alignment of the R27 and passes through Swartruggens and Zeerust towns. The second carriageway of the N4 between the R512 and the Sun City exit (R556) is currently being built. The toll gates can be bypassed between Rustenburg and Pretoria by following the old Rustenburg Road, now the R104.