Feasibility study under way for Cape Town's iconic unfinished freeway bridge

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12-03-2025
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News 24
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• The City of Cape Town is conducting a feasibility study on the unfinished Foreshore freeway bridge.
• The previous City administration, under then-mayor Patricia de Lille, proposed it be developed for inner-city housing.
• The mayoral committee member for urban mobility, Rob Quintas, said it was his desire to see the bridge completed.

The City of Cape Town has not forgotten about the iconic unfinished Foreshore freeway bridge and has confirmed a feasibility study is currently under way.

The bridge has become the location of many movies and advertisement scenes.

It has also become a hub for the homeless.

The design of the bridge began in the 1960s, and construction started in the 1970s, but due to budget constraints, it ended in 1977.

The City's mayoral committee member for urban mobility, Rob Quintas, told News24: "A feasibility study is under way. The City has no further comment at this point and will make a public announcement at the appropriate time."

Asked if perhaps the City would explore options like an elevated railway, Quintas said implementing an elevated rail line was not a consideration.

He added the City had already invested in a road-based public transport system, the MyCiTi bus service, servicing the CBD and Atlantic Seaboard.

"Investment in improving existing services is more practical and cost-effective. A modern elevated rail system requires significant investment in infrastructure, rolling stock, and operations.

"Given the City's budget limitations and the need to prioritise cost-effective solutions, funding such a project is not viable."

Quintas said international experience showed these rail systems required ongoing subsidies to remain operational.

"Integrating it with other modes of transport will also be extremely costly due to the infrastructure modifications it would require."

He added his wish was to have the freeway completed.

"But in terms of how, you know, we have to go, it's a public participation process. As detailed, I think, already, we can come up with some proposals and go to public participation, and we need to be led by those processes.

"My ultimate desires of how it should look and what it should offer is secondary. My primary and only desire as a political principle for every mobility is to see that they are completed," Quintas said.

News24 previously reported former transport minister Fikile Mbalula, in a parliamentary response, stated it would cost R1.8 billion to complete the bridge.

"Since then, the City of Cape Town being able to afford the completion of the freeway has been a challenge. The current predicted cost of completing the Foreshore freeway is R1.808 billion. It is certainly the City's desire to complete the Foreshore freeway, but for this to happen … a partnership between all three spheres of government is required," he said at the time.

The unfinished highway has been an ongoing issue that has plagued the City.

In 2017, the City, under then-mayor Patricia de Lille, requested proposals for the development of a freeway precinct - which was to complete unfinished bridges and build social housing in the inner city.

In 2018, municipal manager Lungelo Mbandazayo said he received legal advice and decided to cancel the proposal request.

At the time, De Lille, who was embroiled in a battle with the DA, stated even she was surprised by the decision.

Six bids were received at the time.

The managing director of Young Urbanists South Africa, Roland Postma, said that they welcomed the work the City was doing and wanted to see the City consider induced demand (congestion) and existing approved policies and plans that outlined spending priorities for all five scenarios.

"We recognise that completing the highway may simply shift traffic rather than reduce congestion.

"The funds to complete the original plan or any plan close to it could be more effectively used to improve existing and future MyCiTi routes, enhance last- and first-mile safety infrastructure, support urban regeneration in Bellville and Khayelitsha to encourage decentralisation, and upgrade public spaces around the rail. We hope the City, in the interim, will remain open to ideas from the public and civil society to better repurpose the space, working with the private sector to unlock this valuable third space that remains vacant and will be for a very long time," he added.