The M1 De Villiers Graaff motorway is a metropolitan route and major freeway in the City of Johannesburg, South Africa. The highway connects the southern areas (including Booysens, Eldorado Park and Soweto) with the city centre and extends further north through Sandton into the Ben Schoeman Highway towards Pretoria. Construction began in 1962 and resulted in the demolition of many properties and houses including numerous historical Parktown Mansions. Route The M1 officially starts at the M68 (Columbine Avenue) Interchange in Southgate, Johannesburg South, just east of the Southgate Shopping Centre. South of this interchange, it is designated as the R82 towards Walkerville. The M1 begins by heading northwards from the M68 off-ramp to reach the Uncle Charlie's Interchange with the N12 Highway (Southern Bypass) in Ridgeway (west southbound interchange only). It continues north-east towards the city centre as a freeway, passing Ormonde and Booysens, and meets the M2 highway (Francis Oberholzer Freeway) at the Crown Interchange (which is immediately south-west of the Johannesburg CBD). The M1 then proceeds north-north-east through the leafy northern suburbs of Johannesburg such as Parktown, and the industrial area separating Sandton and Alexandra. The M1's northern terminus is at the Buccleuch Interchange, where it meets with the N1 (Western Bypass) and the N3 (Eastern Bypass) highways of Johannesburg and becomes the Ben Schoeman Highway (N1) to Pretoria. The part of the M1 in Sandton, between Corlett Drive and the Buccleuch Interchange is maintained by SANRAL. Signage and extra lanes have been upgraded in 2010 with the "Gauteng Freeway Improvement". The section between Corlett Drive and a portion south of the CBD is maintained by the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) with the remainder to the South also maintained by the provincial government . The northern section maintained by the Gauteng Provincial Government is also designated the P206-1. Speed limits, which are strictly enforced, change as one gets nearer to the centre of Johannesburg, from 100 km/h in the northern section, beginning at the Buccleuch interchange, finally dropping to 80 km/h near the city centre. South of the CBD, the speed limit again increases. Before an upgrade in 2012, the speed limit was 120 km/h on the provincial government maintained stretch in Sandton, dropping to 100 km/h as it ran through the Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg (from the start of the JRA maintained section before Corlett Drive). However, subsequent to rehabilitation work in 2012, the limit in the