Foreshore Freeway Bridge
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The Foreshore Freeway Bridge, also known as
Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
's Unfinished Bridge, is an incomplete section of what was intended to be the Eastern Boulevard Highway in the city bowl of Cape Town,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. Conceptualised and designed in the late 1960s, work began in the early 1970s with the freeway aimed at alleviating future traffic congestion in the city expected in the years to come. However, due to budget constraints in city expenditure at the time, the project never came to completion and has stood in its unfinished state since construction officially ended in 1977. While there has been much speculation in local press over the years regarding the freeway's eventual conclusion, the city council has yet to come to a decision regarding the matter. The structure has become somewhat of a tourist attraction over the years and is also a popular
movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
and fashion shoot location.


History

During the 1940s and 1950s the planners and engineers of Cape Town were wrapped up in discussions about proposed road infrastructure on the city's Foreshore and as various alternatives were debated, tensions between
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, Provincial, the
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and the Foreshore Board surfaced. Solomon "Solly" Simon Morris was the City Engineer at the time who proposed relocating Eastern and Western Boulevards and including a ring highway to "allow for circulation with as little disturbance as possible and a speedy entrance and exit". In doing so, Morris was further instilling the popular post-War sentiment of a future associated with faster cars and bigger highways. Construction on the project eventually got off the ground in the early 1970s but was brought to an abrupt halt in 1977 with no clear explanation given at the time. As a result, several
urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
s have surfaced over the years. One is that the design team had made a calculation error resulting in the two ends failing to link up. Another was that construction was halted due to a disgruntled shop owner who refused to sell his property that stood where the flyover would pass. However, the official explanation to date is that the city had run out of money with traffic numbers at the time not justifying its continuation and the project had to be abandoned.


Description

The bridge looking west Originally intended as a
freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
, the uncompleted bridge or overpass consists of two parallel units - each designed to carry one direction of motor traffic over the city's Central business district (CBD) at north entrance, to avoid the many intersections below. Both lanes on the western side were tarred, and road markings were painted right up to where the bridge stops, which is still visible on Google Earth. On the eastern side, approximately away, the other two ends that would have made the connection jut out and have since been converted to public parking. At the 2012 launch of the ''Transport for Cape Town'' initiative, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the
University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
, Professor Francis Petersen, announced a partnership between the City of Cape Town and the University to examine the future of the incomplete foreshore freeway. In 2015 the city council also started using the western top deck as a designated parking area. During the 2010 World Cup Soccer tournament hosted by South Africa, the world's largest () operational
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sponsored by
Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate ("chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai ...
was mounted on the western side and meant to sound at the start of each game. The city council, however, decided not to use it as the jarring sound and volume level was a cause of concern.


Future prospects

Foreshore Freeway Bridge at night The ''Transport for Cape Town'' initiative announced in 2012 sought the input of design students at the University of Cape Town to find an affordable solution to the unfinished bridge and during a presentation on April 14, 2014 at the
Cape Town City Hall Cape Town City Hall is a large Edwardian building in Cape Town city centre which was built in 1905. It is located on the Grand Parade to the west of the Castle and is built from honey-coloured oolitic limestone imported from Bath in England. ...
approximately 600 students exhibited their ideas. Some of these included planting trees on the overpass, turning it into a roller coaster or
skate park A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, wheelchairs, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, qua ...
, creating a street
arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...
below and also possibly some sort of
waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary b ...
. Mayor
Patricia de Lille Patricia de Lille (née Lindt; born 17 February 1951) is a South African politician who is the current Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure and leader of the political party Good. She was previously Mayor of Cape Town from 2011 to 2018, ...
, present at the exhibition said "it was important to use Cape Town's designation as
World Design Capital The World Design Capital (WDC) is a city promotion project by the World Design Organization (formerly named the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design )to recognize and award accomplishments made by cities around the world in the f ...
as an opportunity to think differently". Once the exhibition closed UCT handed the students' projects over to the ''Transport for Cape Town'' committee for evaluation with a decision yet to be announced.


See also

*
List of regional routes in South Africa This is a list of regional routes in South Africa. R101–R120 Route numbers with three digits starting with "R1" are given to sections of road that were formerly part of a national route with a corresponding number, when the national route h ...


References


External links


Future Foreshore Freeway Precinct

South African National Roads Agency

The Peninsula Expressway
{{Cape Town, built Bridges in South Africa Unfinished buildings and structures History of South Africa Transport in Cape Town Bridges to nowhere