The N21 is a proposed national route in the

City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town ( af, Stad Kaapstad; xh, IsiXeko saseKapa) is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 3,740,026. The remo ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. It is also known as Peninsula Expressway

ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...

. Once complete, it will link the northern suburbs on the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

seaboard (

Melkbosstrand Melkbosstrand (Afrikaans for " Milkbush beach") is a coastal town located on the South West Coast of South Africa, 30 km north of Cape Town. It forms part of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, the municipality governing Cape ...

Bloubergstrand Bloubergstrand is a seaside suburb of the City of Cape Town, South Africa, along the shores of Table Bay, due north of the city centre of Cape Town. The name Bloubergstrand literally means "blue mountain beach" in Afrikaans, and is derived fr ...

) with the southern suburbs on

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarcat ...

(

Muizenberg Muizenberg ( , Dutch for "mice mountain") is a beach-side town in the Western Cape, South Africa. It is situated where the shore of the Cape Peninsula curves round to the east on the False Bay coast. It is considered to be the main surfing spot i ...

). The R300 Freeway is entirely part of the proposed route (the freeway will be extended at both ends).

Background

Proposed Route

The proposed freeway will include sections of the existing R300 freeway and will be

toll Toll may refer to: Transportation * Toll (fee) a fee charged for the use of a road or waterway ** Road pricing, the modern practice of charging for road use ** Road toll (historic), the historic practice of charging for road use ** Shadow toll, ...

ed. The name of the consortium involved in the construction of the Expressway is "Penway", short for Peninsula Expressway. The Penway has also become the local nickname for the Expressway. Explosive growth of the Cape Town metropolitan area, especially in terms of local and

international tourism International tourism is tourism that crosses national borders. Globalisation has made tourism a popular global leisure activity. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual en ...

, the

wine industry Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

, and the

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post ...

, has pushed the traffic situation to a critical point.

Environment

A number of

environmental impact Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

studies have been done, to determine whether new sections of the freeway will upset the delicate

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

systems in the Cape Town area. New sections will run south of the N2 towards

Zeekoevlei Zeekoevlei is a freshwater lake on the Cape Flats in Cape Town, Western Cape Province, South Africa. The lake is in area. The name means hippopotamus pond or marsh, with "vlei" being Afrikaans for a shallow minor lake, often seasonal, and ''zee ...

, which is a

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

area, and north of the N1, up to the area near

Projects

Project R300

During the 1990s and 2000s, the national road agency and Western Cape Department Of Road And Transportation began the final construction of the R300, the first section of the highway.

Project N21

The Peninsula Expressway will have junctions with three National Roads, the N1, the N2, and the N7 as well as the M3 and the M5 which are

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 ...

metropolitan freeways. In August 2022 the

Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works The Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works is a department of the Government of the Western Cape. It is responsible for the development of the transport system in the Western Cape province of South Africa, and for constructing and m ...

announced the launch of an

environmental impact assessment Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental imp ...

for the extension of the

R300 The R300 GPU, introduced in August 2002 and developed by ATI Technologies, is its third generation of GPU used in '' Radeon'' graphics cards. This GPU features 3D acceleration based upon Direct3D 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0, a major improvement in featur ...

from its current terminus at the N1 northwards to the R302 (Wellington Road).

Opposition

The Project to extend the R300 has been opposed by some members of society due to them wanting to preserve the areas in which the proposed road is meant to pass (such as wetlands & sanctuaries).

References

{{Reflist Roads in Cape Town Proposed roads Proposed transport infrastructure in South Africa National Roads in South Africa