The City of Cape Town is adamant it is finally going to address its unfinished highways and is set to launch a tender document for interested parties to bid on the project.
Addressing stakeholders of the Foreshore Freeway Precinct last week, Cape Town mayor, Patricia de Lille, said the unfinished highways had been part of the city landscape for nearly five decades after the completion of these roads had been abandoned due to a lack of funds and traffic volume in the seventies.
“Not only are they useless, other than for film shoots, they are also preventing the development of prime city owned land,” said De Lille who has committed to finding a solution about the unfinished project.
In 2012 FTW reported on the City of Cape Town partnering with the University of Cape Town’s Engineering and Built environment facility in an effort to explore and find innovative proposals for the unfinished highways. Some of the students’ ideas were showcased during 2014 as part of the city’s World Design Capital tenure. These efforts, however, have not resulted in any firm solution.
De Lille said that on July 8, the city would issue a document calling on prospective investors and developers or a consortium to come up with a solution for the unsightly highways and to bid for the development. “The solution to the unfinished bridges must assist our range of efforts to alleviate congestion,” said De Lille.
She said whether the unfinished highways stayed or went, were completed or redesigned altogether, were for the proposed bidders to put forward.
