Cape Town - The Western Cape’s largest transport infrastructure project has been spared of major disruptions and threats to the project’s development such as extortion, known to cause major upheavals to City and provincial infrastructural projects.
Yesterday, as the City of Cape Town concluded Transport Month, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Urban Mobility mayco member Rob Quintas conducted a site visit of Phase 2A of the MyCiTi expansion project.
Construction commenced in October 2022 and forms part of the roll-out of the second phase of the MyCiTi network linking Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha, Claremont and Wynberg to the Cape Town CBD.
The Sky Circle, an elevated traffic circle at the intersection of Govan Mbeki Road and Jan Smuts Drive, will be 6.2 metres above ground and will be used exclusively for MyCiTi buses. The project is funded by National Government and the City’s ratepayers.
In terms of the project costs, Hill-Lewis said: “All in all, if you include the depots and stations that we are building and the construction all the way through to Khayelitsha, it is over R7 billion, its R7.2bn and it is by some distance the largest project in the province still.”
Quintas said construction for the entire phase 2 project has a timeline of 2027.
“However the project has been ongoing for several years in preparation for the construction of our red lanes, which are the dedicated
MyCiti Rapid Bus transport lanes as well as construction of items such as the Sky Circle, our Spine Road depots in Mitchells Plain/ Khayelitsha area and of course we will then be doing other works such as the Claremont/ Wynberg PTI (Public Transport Interchange) and other PTI upgrades and the stations, where the MyCiti will be operating as part of a comprehensive integrated transport system with minibus taxis and other bus services.”
The project aims to connect the entire southeast corridor of the City to the Cape Town CBD at the Civic Centre.
“So what that means is, once the project is completed, people will be able to move from the Cape Town Civic Centre through Claremont to Wynberg and from there through to Athlone/ Hanover Park/ Philippi/ Gugulethu/ Nyanga/ Khayelitsha/ Bonteheuwel.”
Manager of Public Transport Infrastructure Implementation Johan Fowler said: “Phase 2A as a whole, is planned for completion towards the end of 2027. That’s when you’ll see the completion of all the infrastructure projects and by then we’ll be having our MyCiti buses rolled out, travelling on our BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) lanes.”
While they’ve received several complaints related to congestion as a result of the massive construction project, he said they’ve had engagements with the community to convey that this is a temporary problem which culminates into long-term gain and benefits.
“So yes, for the next three years, people are going to be very frustrated and sitting in their vehicles but the ultimate aim is to alleviate congestion.”
He said they were also working closely with traffic services in order to assist with this challenge.
“So yes, it is a problem, I am not going to try and sugarcoat it for you, it’s going to get worse before it gets better but it will get better in the next two/ three years. People will see that the traffic will be moving much faster than it used to,” Fowler said.
“Phase 2 currently consists of ten major work packages, starting in Claremont all the way through into Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain with our AZ Berman contract currently underway. By next time this year, everything from Claremont into Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha will be under construction.”
Hill-Lewis said remarkable progress has been made.
“They’ve had minimal disruptions, if any, no disruptions that we’ve seen on many of our other construction sites around the City so that is very positive and I think it’s testament to the way this construction site is being run, very professionally. I’m very happy with what I’m seeing here.”
Hill-Lewis added that Sky Circle would also be keeping the buses out of traffic.
“This project is really moving… Not just here, construction is happening all over the place and it’s really moving. If you go and look at AZ Berman, you can see real progress there. If you go to Philippi, they have done the first phase of the relocations of families there. A remarkable job they’ve done there.
“Spine Road depot is nearly done.
“So this is an unbelievably complex project and they have really done very well.”
Cape Argus