Smoother Streets, Stronger City: eThekwini Pours R127.9 Million Into Durban’s Inner-City Roads

Durban’s urban core is riding on fresh asphalt. The eThekwini Municipality invested approximately R127.9 million in rehabilitating key inner-city roads during the 2025/26 financial year, delivering upgrades across 13 strategic routes and roughly 65 lane kilometres of road infrastructure, enough to see the Roads and Infrastructure Management Directorate exceed its annual resurfacing target.

The Streets Getting a Second Life

The programme, part of the municipality’s ongoing Inner-City Regeneration Programme, focused on the corridors that carry the city’s daily life. Among the major roads rehabilitated are:

• Umngeni Road and Dr Pixley ka Seme Street
• K E Masinga Road and Masabalala Yengwa Avenue
• Sandile Thusi Road and Margaret Mncadi Avenue
• Soldiers Way and Smiso Nkwanyana Road
• The Inkosi Albert Luthuli Freeway (M4)

According to the municipality, the works have significantly improved conditions along key transport corridors used daily by thousands of commuters, residents, businesses and public transport operators. The projects went beyond resurfacing, taking in stormwater drainage improvements and pedestrian and road safety upgrades, while reducing long-term maintenance requirements.

Building an Investment-Friendly City

Thanda Zulu, Acting Deputy Director of Roads and Infrastructure Management, said the programme’s success underscores the municipality’s commitment to building resilient infrastructure and creating a more attractive, efficient and investment-friendly city.

“An investment of nearly R128 million in our inner-city road network reflects the municipality’s commitment to rebuilding critical infrastructure, improving the movement of people and goods, and creating an environment that supports economic growth, investment, and job creation. The success of the Inner-City Road Rehabilitation Programme is already delivering tangible benefits for residents, businesses, and visitors to Durban,” Zulu said.

Zulu noted that the coordinated rehabilitation of roads across the CBD and Warwick precincts has strengthened critical transport networks while supporting the city’s wider urban renewal objectives, and reaffirmed the municipality’s commitment to sustaining the programme’s momentum through continued infrastructure investment.

Home-Grown Skills Behind the Wheel

There is a further reason for civic pride in the numbers. Of the 13 roads rehabilitated during the year, four projects were completed entirely by the municipality’s own internal roads teams, with a fifth delivered through a combination of internal and contracted resources. It is a clear sign of growing in-house capacity to deliver quality infrastructure efficiently and cost-effectively.

Zulu said the programme also highlights the valuable contribution of the municipality’s internal roads teams, whose growing expertise means more of the city’s infrastructure rand stays within the city, building skills and institutional capability with every project completed. The Inner-City Regeneration Programme itself is aimed at restoring and modernising Durban’s urban core, improving mobility, enhancing public safety and stimulating economic growth within the central business district and its surrounding precincts.

For Durban’s commuters, traders and visitors, the result is a city centre that moves better, drains better and feels safer, with the promise of more to come, according to details reported by SAnews.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org