What to expect from Cape Town’s new R481 million traffic congestion fixes
In a statement released on Tuesday (12 June), the City’s mayoral committee Member for Transport and Urban Development, Brett Herron, explained that this money budgeted for congestion relief projects will be used over the next three financial years – starting on 1 July 2018.
“The money has been allocated to six road projects that are currently under construction: two in Kuils River; two in Kommetjie; one in Somerset West; and one in the Milnerton area; as well as to another 16 projects that are currently in the planning and design phase,” said Herron.
He added that as of April 2017 it was estimated that there is a backlog of R5 billion in roads infrastructure projects across the city.
“We will need an on-going financial commitment and will have to incrementally invest in our road infrastructure and the so-called missing links in the road network in order to address this massive backlog,” he said.
“Apart from the City’s investment in congestion relief projects, the Western Cape Provincial Government has also made significant investments in improvements along the N1 and N2 freeways, and is also planning major upgrades along the N7 corridor.
“The progress report on the City’s Congestion Management Programme served before the TDA transversal committee recently, and the completed projects are as follows”:
Completed upgrades
Another six road construction projects are currently under way:
“As we are adding capacity to the existing road network to provide some form of relief in the severely congested areas of the city, we are also working on establishing an efficient, affordable, extensive and intermodal public transport system,” said Herron.
“However, we also need our residents to change their commuting patterns by making use of public transport as far as possible, and to try and travel outside of the peak hour periods.”
“In this sense business can contribute by implementing flexible working hours or by allowing employees to work from home, where feasible,” he said.