National Route 14

	Template: Infobox high-ranking street / Maintenance / ZA-N
	National Route N14 in South Africa
	map
	Basic data
Operator:	SANRAL
Overall length:	1195 km
Provinces :	Northern Cape; North West; Gauteng;

The National Route 14 (short- N14 ) is a South African National Road that of Springbok in the northwest of the country as far as Pretoria , the capital of South Africa runs.

Route

From Springbok in Namaqualand , the N14 runs northeast via Pofadder and Kakamas to Upington . Between Kakamas and Upington, the road follows the valley of the Orange River , in which it is also accompanied by a railway line.

After Upington, it crosses a dry section of the southern Kalahari for 160 kilometers , which is only very sparsely populated and rises to about 1,400 meters above sea level in an easterly direction. At Olifantshoek , the course of the road in the mountain ranges of the Langeberg Mountains reaches again populated area within a savannah region with cattle pastures .

South of the mining town of Sishen , the Orex line crosses the N14. In the small town of Droëspruit , the trunk road crosses a railway line from the iron ore mining area around Postmasburg that comes from the south . Further north to the Kathu Game Reserve , the N14 swings again in a north-easterly direction to the mining town of Kuruman . There it touches the northern foothills of the Kuruman Hills with the manganese ore deposits of the Kalahari manganese field . The road system in this region is of great logistical importance for the transport of the mined ores to the railway lines of Transnet Freight Rail, which are being developed here .

From here the N14 continues through sparsely populated area, crosses the provincial border to North West and reaches Vryburg after a total of about 130 kilometers . This is where the N18 crosses , which, coming from the south of Kimberley , continues to a border crossing to Botswana .

The N14 continues in the almost straight north-easterly direction, passing Delareyville , the Barberspan Nature Reserve , Sannieshof , until it reaches the village of Coligny . The regional road R503, which leads northwards, branches off here in the direction of Lichtenburg and on to Mahikeng . Even before Coligny, sections of a railway line approach the N14, which, however , turns towards Johannesburg at the town of Tshing . The highway runs further northeast, through the small town of Ventersdorp , crosses the provincial border to Gauteng , as far as the vicinity of Krugersdorp . In doing so, it reaches the Far West Rand industrial and mining area. From here it runs on the periphery of an increasingly densely populated area west of Johannesburg and approaches the metropolitan area south of Pretoria. It crosses the M5 at the Zwartkop junction , which leads out of the city of Johannesburg not far from there.

In Centurion the N14 has a connection with the N1 at the Centurion-Zwartkop motorway junction . Here she turns north on the Ben Schoeman Highway, where shortly afterwards the route of the Gautrain traffic system approaches and penetrates parallel with the N14 into the urban area of Pretoria. Not far from the city center, it crosses the Gautrain route and then takes the R101 on the left-hand side of Freedom Park, ending west of Pretoria Central not far from the train station in the city center area.

Route expansion

From Springbok to Upington, the N14 is a continuous single-lane trunk road. There are sections between Upington and Ventersdorp with insufficient capacity and stability, which have been improved and expanded at several points through construction work since 2012–2013.

With the rehabilitation of the section between Centurion and Pretoria, known as the “Ben Schoeman Highway”, the Gauteng government has set an investment focus for the transport infrastructure in the area of the Municipality of Tshwane as part of its Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project .

On the western edge of the City of Johannesburg , the freeway expansion phase begins . To accommodate the large volume of traffic , this road cross-section continues until the end of the route in the center of Pretoria. So far there are no toll roads on the N14.