{"id":413686,"date":"2026-09-06T22:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/413686\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T22:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:08:18","slug":"total-gridlock-motorists-warned-of-severe-n3-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/413686\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Total gridlock\u2019: Motorists warned of severe N3 delays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Motorists travelling through Pietermaritzburg on Sunday evening have been urged to exercise extreme patience after severe traffic congestion developed on the N3 following the demolition of the Murray Road Bridge.<\/p>\n

The Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) said the gridlock began at about 4 pm and intensified as more motorists joined the route. The congestion has also spilt over onto alternative routes, placing additional pressure on surrounding roads.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ | Traffic alert: M4 near Umdloti to be closed for six hours<\/a><\/p>\n

RTI spokesperson Sindi Msimang said many travellers were unaware of the bridge demolition and had already left their areas when the traffic disruption began.<\/p>\n

\u201cDurban was busy this weekend because of the various events that were hosted there, and now people are returning to their respective destinations,\u201d said Msimang.<\/p>\n

She said traffic was heavy in both the northbound and southbound directions, and the trucks travelling between Durban and Gauteng were adding to the congestion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is dire, hence our appeal to motorists to exercise caution and patience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Msimang said the R103 at Lynfield Park and the Ashburton off-ramps were heavily congested. The Umlaas Road off-ramp, which provides access to Richmond, was also experiencing significant delays.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ | N3 bridge demolition to cause weekend closure, Murray Road shut until 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

She warned that motorists should expect extensive delays on both the northbound and southbound carriageways of the N3, as well as the R103 and R56, while demolition and clean-up operations continue at the Murray Road Bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cMotorists are strongly advised to delay or postpone their trips. Traffic is in a total gridlock,\u201d Msimang said.<\/p>\n

She acknowledged the inconvenience caused by the operation but said the work was necessary to improve road conditions and provide motorists with safer and better driving infrastructure.<\/p>\n

She said it was not clear how long the congestion is expected to last, but urged motorists to monitor traffic updates, avoid affected routes where possible and allow extra time for essential journeys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Motorists travelling through Pietermaritzburg on Sunday evening have been urged to exercise extreme patience after severe traffic congestion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[52],"tags":[1638,2102,196722,3264,96,196723,131],"class_list":["post-413686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-africa","tag-durban","tag-kzn","tag-n3-congestion","tag-national-news","tag-news","tag-pietermaritzburg-district-community-chest","tag-south-africa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117226379953806657","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}