PALAEONTOLOGICAL HERITAGE ASSESSMENT: COMBINED DESKTOP & FIELD-BASED STUDY PROPOSED UPGRADE OF NATIONAL ROUTE R63, SECTION 13, AND ASSOCIATED MINING APPLICATIONS FROM FORT BEAUFORT (KM 35,77) TO ALICE (KM 58,86), EASTERN CAPE John E. Almond PhD (Cantab.) Natura Viva cc, PO Box 12410 Mill Street, Cape Town 8010, RSA
[email protected] September 2016 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited is proposing to upgrade Section 13 of the National Route R63 between the small towns of Fort Beaufort and Alice in the Eastern Cape. The road project will involve the development of six borrow pits and a hardrock quarry. The study area for the proposed upgrade of the R63 (Section 13) is largely underlain by Late Permian continental sediments of the Lower Beaufort Group (Adelaide Subgroup, Karoo Supergroup) that are assigned to the Balfour Formation (Daggaboersnek Member). However, these potentially fossiliferous bedrocks are generally poorly-exposed, quite weathered and have been locally baked by major Karoo dolerite intrusions. Desktop and field assessment of the study area indicate that the sedimentary rocks of the Balfour Formation here contain very sparse vertebrate fossils, petrified wood and trace fossils (e.g. vertebrate burrows). No scientifically- valuable fossil remains were recorded from sedimentary rocks exposed within the development footprint itself, including the five sedimentary borrow pit localities (Sites C to G in Fig. 2 herein) and several road cuttings. A conservation-worthy warren of vertebrate burrows along the banks of the Mxelo River (red triangle in Fig. 2) lies 100 m outside the development footprint and so should not be directly impacted.