CAPE TOWN - Cape Town Stadium (56,000) [Archive]

Mo Rush

March 14th, 2007, 03:41 PM

City allocates R530m to ensure the World Cup goes green

By JOHN YELD
Environment & Science Writer

Cape Town is looking to spend R530 million over the next five years to ensure that the 2010 World Cup and its aftermath will be a "green event" that is environmentally and socially sustainable.

The biggest share - R315m - is for an integrated waste management programme.

The balance of R215m includes a R90m budget to ensure that construction of the stadium is eco-efficient; R40m for a landscaping and biodiversity plan for the stadium and other event venues; R30m for an event greening communications programme; R20m for "green procurement" of materials; R8.6m for an alien invasive plant eradication project at one of the venues; and R9m for a sustainable tourism-sports development programme.

This budget forms part of the broad-based business plan for 2010 that includes aiming to build a "Green Goal" programme for Cape Town and the Western Cape.

The business plan assumes a starting date of January 1 this year and a completion date of December 31, 2011 - 17 months after the World Cup event to ensure the "legacy" aspects of the greening pro-cess.

When the City of Cape Town signed a "Host City Agreement" with Fifa and the Local Organising Committee in March last year, it included a commitment to sustainable development and environmental protection.

One of the clauses of this agreement reads: "In particular, the concept of sustainable development shall include concerns for post-competition use of stadia and other facilities and infrastructure."

A document used by the city to compile the business plan points out that the now accept-ed term for the process of making an event environmentally and socially sustainable is "event greening".

But it stresses: "'Event greening' does not equate to tree planting or landscaping options alone. Rather, it represents the total package of interventions in an event to ensure that it is implemented along sustainable guidelines which minimise negative environmental impacts."

Referring to the R90m budget for the green build-ing/eco-efficiency programme, the document states that consideration of green building principles and practice in the development of the new Green Point stadium is "vital".

"Buildings that consider 'green'/eco-efficiency or sustainability issues in their design use significantly less energy and other resources over their lifetimes … Green principles need to be brought into the construction process from the very beginning."

The budget for this programme will include research and consulting services, as well as the supplementary capital cost of buying more expensive, eco-efficient building materials and fittings such as double-glazing, recycled plastic seating and energy-efficient lighting and appliances.

R20m is allocated to supplement a "green procurement" programme - for example, by making sure purchases are linked to the international "Fair Trade" initiative.

The landscaping and biodiversity budget will be spent on the event venues at Green Point (the stadium) and at public viewing facilities - "Fan Parks" - planned for Athlone, Bellville and Swartklip (near Mitchell's Plain and Khayelitsha).

It includes the cost of 60 000 plants, establishing and running a nursery at Green Point, and employing a landscape design team and 20 gardeners over the set-up phase and five gardeners over the maintenance period.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on March 14, 2007.

Juanl

March 14th, 2007, 04:01 PM

Construction of the semifinal venue can start this week.

'We will work double shifts and do whatever is necessary'
Budgetary discrepancies delayed the much-anticipated official awarding of the contract that was due to be signed on Monday.

But the City's Bid Adjudication Committee (BAC), which on Tuesday approved the awarding of the stadium contract to Murray & Roberts, said Fifa's construction deadline of October 2009 "was not negotiable".

Dave Hugo, BAC chairperson, said: "The completion date is just not negotiable. We will work double shifts and do whatever is necessary."

There are concerns that delays in awarding the contract could push the completion date of the project to January 2010.

But Hugo said it was possible that the changes in the complexity of the stadium structure would make it possible for the contractors to finish by the end of October 2009.

Hugo said that, despite incentives for the contractor to complete the work within budget, it was possible the project could run over this limit.

Murray & Roberts will this week begin removing trees from the Metropolitan Golf Course so that the earthworks can start.

The partial demolition of the existing stadium is expected to start in the next few days.

Mo Rush

March 15th, 2007, 06:01 PM

R30bn public transport upgrade for Cape

By Anel Powell

More than R30-billion will be spent on public transport and infrastructure in the next three years, with R11-billion being used for 2010-related projects.

A further R12-billion will be spent by municipalities on bulk infrastructure and roads, while R1,2-billion has been set aside to upgrade the railway system.

Marius Fransman, MEC for Transport and Public Works, announced the "immediate funding" for the multibillion-rand strategic infrastructure plan (SIP) on Wednesday at an official launch attended by government and private sector representatives and tertiary institutions.

Fransman said the bulk of the money would go to public transport, housing, hospitals, and schools. "There is strong consensus that a modern and safe and well-run public transport system will play a crucial role in ensuring shared growth and integrated development."

The strategy, a joint effort between the departments of the provincial government, municipalities and the private sector, will run until 2014.

Public transport plans included in the strategy are the improvement of the road-based public transport system, an improvement and extension of the railway network, upgrades of Cape Town and Saldanha ports, a public transport link for Cape Town International Airport and the development of provincial freight networks. A R100-million inner city transport system has been listed as a top-priority project.

The strategy also calls for the regulation of charges on metered taxis.

Mo Rush

March 15th, 2007, 09:42 PM

A safer Cape Town for tourists

By Murray Williams

The City of Cape Town has a new policy to manage attacks on tourists, with tourist safety becoming an ever more critical issue ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

The plan does not attempt to stop crime, which remains the job of the police.

Instead, it seeks to warn of the potential dangers and then co-ordinates the efforts of all tourism-related bodies and communication with emergency services after any incidents.

"It's about who deals with what, when what happens," explained Simon Grindrod, mayoral committee member for Economic Development and Tourism.

"Visitor safety and support is one of the key issues impacting on sustainable tourism."

The City's tourism department has developed this strategy in conjunction with the Western Cape's Economic Development and Tourism department, as part of a broader provincial initiative.

Grindrod said awareness remained "our greatest weapon".

This was "warning tourists in a way that is not frightening, but practical".

This was done by distributing brochures containing safety tips and by training local residents to be aware of the safety of tourists in their midst.

"The simple act of helping a tourist who is lost can often prevent something from happening," Grindrod suggested.

The plan calls on Capetonians to work with Cape Town Tourism to:

# Alert the protection services to areas of concern regarding safety and security.

# Assist a victim to contact the relevant protection or emergency services where required.

# Ensure that victims are treated with respect and dignity at all times.

# Work with Cape Town Tourism's local offices to create a safer environment for visitors.

* This article was originally published on page 3 of The Cape Argus on March 15, 2007

The Argus

Published on the Web by IOL on 2007-03-15 11:56:00
© Independent Online 2005. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains.

Calvin W

March 16th, 2007, 12:50 PM

Any bets on whether it will be ready by 2010? They seem to be cutting it on the fine side, for time allowed.

Mo Rush

March 16th, 2007, 02:42 PM

Any bets on whether it will be ready by 2010? They seem to be cutting it on the fine side, for time allowed.

Should be complete by October 2009. All other new stadia also have this deadline.

Joop20

March 16th, 2007, 03:46 PM

Calvin W

March 17th, 2007, 12:46 PM

Should be complete by October 2009. All other new stadia also have this deadline.

Anyone can make a deadline but can it be kept? Look at Wembley, how far it went past the original deadline!

DodgerMan

March 17th, 2007, 02:24 PM

^^

Of course it will be ready in time - Australians are not building it.

Mo Rush

March 17th, 2007, 02:53 PM

^^

Of course it will be ready in time - Australians are not building it.
Ouch

As far as I know they will be working day and night 24hrs a day to complete the stadium before November 2009. The bid ajudication committee who awarded the contract to Murray and Robert and WBHO said the October 2009 date was not negotiable.

Millennium Stadium took just 2 years to construct(with the space,time and budgetary constraints not forgetting the retractable roof, so its def possible.

dysan1

March 17th, 2007, 03:31 PM

Mo, do you know if the field could be lifted to accomodate an athletics track? It doesnt seem to fit in the stadium as it is on the renders. Wouldnt it be stupid not to have this option keeping Cape Town's olympic ambitions in mind?

The designers have stated that the stadium is too small to ever fit an athletics track in it. so it will never be able to accomodate one

Mo Rush

March 17th, 2007, 04:52 PM

The designers have stated that the stadium is too small to ever fit an athletics track in it. so it will never be able to accomodate one

temporary olympic stadium it is then. chicago and london will set the standard.

Joop20

March 17th, 2007, 08:12 PM

Waste of money if you ask me, surely a stadium like stade-de-france wouldve been a more sensible option?

Mo Rush

March 19th, 2007, 08:01 PM

Army of workers set to start on stadium Basics begin this week

By LINDSAY DENTLINGER
Metro Writer

As many as 2 000 construction workers will descend on the site of the 2010 Green Point stadium once construction goes into full swing.

Contractors are expected to move on site later this week to prepare for construction.

For the first time since the award of the tender last week to the joint venture of Murray and Roberts and WBHO, the consortium has spoken out on the R2.85billion project.

Murray and Roberts general manager Andrew Fanton told the Cape Argus that the consortium was still formalising design elements of the stadium before construction could start.

"We are extremely excited. We are very confident that we can deliver a world-class project. It's a fantastic project not only for ourselves but for South Africa."

He said they would take possession of the site as soon they had finalised the tender offer and acceptance documents with the city early this week.

"We are dotting our i's and crossing our t's," he said.

Tomorrow, Mayor Helen Zille and Premier Ebrahim Rasool will officiate at a sod turning and blessing of the soil ceremony at Green Point, signifying the start of the construction phase of the project.

The city's 2010 spokesman Pieter Cronje said a number of religious leaders from various faiths had been invited to deliver either a short message, scripture or prayer at the event.

Fifa's local organising committee and national and provincial government officials connected to the project have also been invited.

At the weekend, members of the Metropolitan Golf Club officially enjoyed their last rounds on the course after three weeks of reprieve. Saturday's St Patrick's Day Open was the last competition to be played there.

A new golf course will be built by the city at a cost of R25 million.

Fanton said actual construction of the new stadium would only start in a few weeks' time.

Immediate tasks included hoarding off the site, mobilising equipment and staff and setting up offices.

Once on site, existing services would have to be deviated, trees and grass on the golf course would be removed as well the area prepared for earthworks and the laying of the foundation. Fanton said it may not be necessary to start the partial demolition of the existing stadium immediately.

He stressed that time was a crucial element in the project and that skilled resources might have to be sourced from abroad to complete it according to the strict timelines.

Between 1 500 and 2 000 workers will be involved in the project once construction hits its peak.

"We have to deliver on time. There is no such thing as an extension of time.

"We will be sticking to our programme and if we can shave off some time, we will."

According to the tender award, the consortium has agreed to completing the project by January 2010. Fifa requires that all 2010 stadia be completed by October 2009.

Construction of the stadium was originally supposed to start by the end of January, but the award of the tender was delayed while the city negotiated down the building cost of the stadium and sourced additional funding.

Murray and Roberts and WBHO originally tendered an amount of R3.7bn to build the new stadium.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on March 19, 2007.

Mo Rush

March 20th, 2007, 11:20 PM

Earth moves as 2010 building begins

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/426639546_32a7ebf0f8.jpg?v=0
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/176/426639327_6efc2bf0be.jpg?v=0
By LEILA SAMODIEN
Staff Reporter

The 2010 local organising committee (LOC) chief, Danny Jordaan, hailed today's sod-turning ceremony at the site of the Green Point stadium as "a milestone" on the road to the World Cup.

Premier Ebrahim Rasool and mayor Helen Zille were due to take part in the ceremony on the Metropolitan Golf Club site this afternoon.

Representatives of Fifa's LOC, provincial and city officials and religious groups were also expected to attend, along with officials from joint venture developers WBHO and Murray & Roberts.

Winning bidders WBHO and Murray & Roberts were last week awarded the R2.9 billion contract for the construction of the 68 000-seater stadium.

The ceremony heralds the start of construction, scheduled this week after months of wrangling, threats of legal action and negotiations .

Zille and Rasool were set to turn the first sod.

Jordaan said in a statement: "This sod-turning ceremony is an important milestone for the delivery of the World Cup in our country.

"The sod-turning ceremony signals a huge vote of confidence in the work that has been done in Cape Town."

 Members of the Metropolitan Golf Club played their last rounds of golf on the site this past weekend.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on March 20, 2007.

Notes:

1. The 68,000 seat stadium will be become part of a R120 million urban park planned for the remainder of the common.
2. The urban park will include a new tennis centre and sports field for various sports including bowls, rugby,soccer,hockey and athletics.
3. The stadium is located within sight of the city centre and within walking distance of the $1 billion V&A waterfront which is to undergo a further $1 billion upgrade before 2010. Granger Bay Boulevard will link the new stadium to the waterfront which sees over 20 million visitors annually.

Mo Rush

March 20th, 2007, 11:35 PM

With its picturesque beaches, breathtaking mountain ranges and laid-back atmosphere, Cape Town is set to be one of the 2010 Fifa World Cup's showpiece cities.

And the beautiful coastal city on Africa's southernmost tip moved a huge step closer to realising its World Cup dreams today when the city held a sod-turning ceremony for its R2,7-billion Green Point Stadium.

The stadium, nestled at the foot of Cape Town's famous Table Mountain and within walking distance of the popular Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, will be far and away the South Affrican 2010 World Cup's most scenic venue.

The chief executive officer of South Africa's 2010 Fifa World Cup Organising Committee (LOC), Dr Danny Jordaan, said the sod-turning ceremony, which will pave the way for construction of the stadium to commence, was a significant moment for the LOC.

"This is an important milestone for the delivery of the World Cup in our country. Cape Town is a major international destination and will form one of the central pillars of delivering a world-class event in South Africa.

The sod-turning ceremony signals a huge vote of confidence in the work that has been done in Cape Town. We must give credit to mayor Helen Zille and the entire council of the city of Cape Town," said Dr Jordaan. Mayor Zille called today's ceremony a "celebration" for the city and its people.

"It's a red letter day in Green Point. The whole world must look at South Africa after 2010 and say Africans could do it. They could get it right professionally, on time, co-operatively and they could get it right in style," said Zille.

The city, which attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, is bidding to host a World Cup semifinal in 2010.

The stadium will be built by a consortium of the Murray and Roberts and WBHO construction companies.

"The 70 000-seater capacity of the stadium in the city will be a significant boost in terms of the additional number of tickets that will be available to South Africans for World Cup matches. The high number of accommodation available in the city, together with the good public transport network and the beauty of the city will certainly make Cape Town one of the strengths of South Africa's bid to deliver a world-class event," added Dr Jordaan.

Cape Town is rich in football tradition and has produced players such as Blackburn Rovers' prolific striker Benni McCarthy, Bolton Rovers' Quinton Fortune and former Charlton Athletic striker Shaun Bartlett over the years,

"The Green Point World Cup stadium will strengthen the football character of the city. Cape Town has over many years produced quality players and the FIFA World Cup is a huge opportunity for professional football in the city. With a world-class facility available to football in Cape Town, there is no limit to football pursuing the former glory of Cape Town as an important hub of football in our country. The city's footballers will now have the stadium available to deliver high-quality entertainment to the city's many football fans," added Dr Jordaan.

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool said Cape Town would be a "welcoming window to the world in 2010".

"Today we send a signal to Fifa and the rest of the world that Cape Town is ready to meet all its obligations for 2010," said Rasool.

Benjuk

March 21st, 2007, 08:14 AM

Cape Town is rich in football tradition and has produced players such as Blackburn Rovers' prolific striker Benni McCarthy, Bolton Rovers' Quinton Fortune and former Charlton Athletic striker Shaun Bartlett over the years.

Is that Bolton Wanderers, or Blackburn Rovers?

Pedantry aside, the venues look awesome on paper, hopefully once they start taking shape in the real world some of the negative attitudes (from outside SA) will die down. I wasn't planning on going to SA2010, but the more time I spend reading Mo's posts, the more I'm looking forward to swamping FIFA.com with ticket applications come the end of 2009!

Had a ball in Germany with 'only' six games in my 12 days, in SA I'm hoping tickets will be easier to come by and I'll be looking to get to 9 or 10 games in a fortnight.

Bring it on.

Mo Rush

March 21st, 2007, 12:39 PM

Is that Bolton Wanderers, or Blackburn Rovers?

Pedantry aside, the venues look awesome on paper, hopefully once they start taking shape in the real world some of the negative attitudes (from outside SA) will die down. I wasn't planning on going to SA2010, but the more time I spend reading Mo's posts, the more I'm looking forward to swamping FIFA.com with ticket applications come the end of 2009!

Had a ball in Germany with 'only' six games in my 12 days, in SA I'm hoping tickets will be easier to come by and I'll be looking to get to 9 or 10 games in a fortnight.

Bring it on.

Well in my totally unbiased opinion, book early and base yourself in CT, the stadium is within walking distance of the top hotels in the cbd and around the waterfront, as far as i know CT will stage games from the 1st round up until the SF (incl QF). And well CT is just the best south african city..duh..! haha.

Mo Rush

March 21st, 2007, 02:21 PM

Bidding begins for 2010 broadcast centre

By Paul Vecchiatto
Posted: 19 March 2007
The 2010 Soccer World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC) today began proceedings to evaluate bids to host the international broadcasting centre (IBC). The IBC will serve as the broadcasting hub for the world's largest sporting event.

Tumi Makgabo, LOC communications manager, says the three competing cities – Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban – submitted their written proposals late last week and the process has begun to evaluate them.

“We have started the process and we hope to make a final decision within the next two months,” she says.

Makgabo would not detail the requirements the LOC would need the cities to cater for, but says the proposals would have to meet broadcasting and technical requirements.

In February, government issued a statement saying it would determine where the IBC would be located. However, Makgabo says the final decision rests with the LOC.

“We have, however, engaged fully with the relevant government departments, including the Department of Communications, in the matter,” she says.

Hosting the IBC would provide a fillip for the chosen city. The centre is expected to run 24 hours a day for the entire six-week period, and thousands of journalists and technical people will reside there during the event.

During the 2006 World Cup in Germany, 46 000 broadcast hours were televised from the Munich IBC, placing great demands on ICT infrastructure.

Johannesburg's bid centres on locating the IBC at the Nasrec showgrounds. Durban proposes it be positioned at its International Convention Centre, and Cape Town hopes it will be hosted at an extension to be built on its foreshore.

Cape Town: www.cticc.co.za
http://www.cticc.co.za//userimages/Aerial_middle.jpg

Durban: www.icc.co.za
http://www.exsa.co.za/exsa/uploads/images/ICC%20img%202.jpg

Johannesburg:www.expocentre.co.za

Mo Rush

March 21st, 2007, 02:49 PM

This has been posted in the general 2010 FIFA world cup thread but I thought it would be more appropriate to keep Cape Town related issues to this thread.

World Cup Training Venue: Athlone, Cape Town
Capacity: 40,000
Completion Date: June 2009
Upgrade Cost: $45 million

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/athlone111.jpg
June 2006:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/28/44628534_adaa3cd866.jpg?v=0
October 2006:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/foreverthestars/meghans%20stuff/south%20africa/IMG_0762.jpg

dysan1

March 22nd, 2007, 11:19 PM

And well CT is just the best south african city..duh..! haha.

Of course it is...and you have the statement to prove it...now there's a good boy :)

Mo Rush

March 23rd, 2007, 02:57 PM

Kick-off at last for 2010 stadium

By Lindsay Dentlinger

The South African Football Association (Safa) in the Western Cape says it will push for at least six 2010 World Cup games to be played at the Green Point Stadium.

This will be at least two more games than other stadiums are likely to get, says Safa's Western Cape representative Vernon Seymour .

"We have a lot of confidence that we will get them and have the largest number of matches," he said.

Seymour said that in its proposal to Fifa the association would draw on the appeal of Cape Town to the international footballing community.

Seymour said Cape Town would hope to get three first-round matches, one top 16, a quarter and a semi-final. Originally only three first round matches were to be played in Cape Town but the decision to build a stadium at Green Point would allow for a semi-final.

After yesterday's sod-turning and blessing there is now no turning back on the controversial 2010 stadium at Green Point, with construction set to start in two weeks.

The Murray & Roberts and WBHO joint venture told the Cape Argus they would need that time to mobilise staff and equipment and finalise sub-contractors. Excavation works are only expected to begin in the next six to eight weeks.

Murray & Roberts group executive director Sean Flanagan said those involved in the project, including consultants and city officials, would meet at the golf course tomorrow for a team-building exercise and also to play the last round of golf on the course.

Flanagan said design information was still outstanding, and the company had to do a lot of procurement before construction got under way.

The joint venture for the R2.85 billion, 68 000-seater stadium is an equal partnership between the two companies - with risk and reward being shared in the same amount.

WBHO chairman Mike Wylie said his company viewed the project as so important that its local managing directors were being pulled off other projects to assist in the building of the stadium.

Flanagan said the consortium had decided to bid only for the stadium project in Cape Town as it was well aware of the risks of building stadiums internationally.

Mayor Helen Zille said yesterday the completion of the 2010 stadium project would indicate to the world that Africa could manage to host an event of this magnitude.

"With all the legacies that we have to leave behind, we have to assign Afro-pessimism to the dustbin of history," she said.

But Zille emphasised that the far greater achievement for the city in preparation for 2010 would be revamping the public transport system. "It makes the stadium look like the opening round," she quipped.

Premier Ebrahim Rasool also emphasised that the legacies of the 2010 World Cup were all-important, including improved public transport, increased GDP, the creation of jobs and turnover of tourists, both before and after the event.

The event was merely the "cheese in the trap", he said.

"As an ANC member I know that we would have preferred Athlone [for the new stadium], the DA would have preferred Newlands and the residents of Green Point would have preferred anywhere else. The debate is now closed and the fighting has ended."

He said the sod-turning ceremony represented the "victory of co-operation and unity over division".

Published on the web by Cape Argus on March 21, 2007.

Mo Rush

March 23rd, 2007, 05:24 PM

The new stadium will be constructed adjacent to the existing stadium in picture at the golf course site:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/159/431384718_96260ef01c_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/155/431384818_4171c86438_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/179/431384915_118414935c_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/431392574_93c1b8ea2d_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/180/431385001_769b3ccab0_o.jpg

Archibald Leitch

March 23rd, 2007, 09:27 PM

^^

Nice scenery.

dysan1

March 24th, 2007, 12:18 AM

When does demolition begin? cos here in durban they have been at work on the site since October, so cape town has a good 5 months, nearly 6 to make up. Lets hope its full steam ahead

Mo Rush

March 25th, 2007, 01:26 AM

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/155/432683322_b39bf8c340_b.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/432682990_f94576b9fd_b.jpg

Mo Rush

March 25th, 2007, 11:09 AM

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/Photo-0034bright1.jpg

Cape Argus full page ad.

Gherkin

March 26th, 2007, 12:10 AM

Great photos Mo :)

I had the BEST seafood-platter in a restaurant in that turquoise-roofed building on the left of the first pic :D If I wasn't at Uni I'd love to go back to South Africa for the World Cup in 2010... the stadium will look excellent :)

To Mo: You know both of the URL addresses in your signature link to the same thread? lol

Mo Rush

March 26th, 2007, 08:41 PM

City residents to have their say on green zone

By Lindsay Dentlinger

The sixth public participation process related to the building of the Green Point Stadium is due to start on Thursday and city residents are invited to have their say about the design of the urban park at the site.

Residents will have until May 25 to comment on the proposed redevelopment of Green Point Common, including as to whether the city will be able to proceed in building a new golf course for the Metropolitan Golf Club on the portion earmarked for this purpose.

At a series of 10 public meetings residents will be provided with images and information about the plans for the sports and recreation precinct.

Information packs will also be available at city libraries.

City of Cape Town 2010 spokesman Pieter Cronje announced yesterday that the meetings would be held in Atlantis, Woodstock, Gugu-lethu, Mitchell's Plain, Muizenberg, Athlone, Strand, Parow, Khayelitsha and Kraaifontein. The venues, dates and times will be advertised in local and community newspapers this week.

The city has to provide Environment, Planning and Economic Development MEC Tasneem Essop with designs and plans for the urban park by July 6. Public comments are to be included in this report.

This latest public participation process is a condition of the revised environmental Record of Decision, issued by Essop in January, confirming the site for the building of the stadium.

This week a consortium of Murray and Roberts and WBHO is expected to move on site to prepare for the construction of the stadium next month.

At the meetings, Cronje said, the concept of the urban park will be explained to interested members of the public.

The proposed park will comprise a consolidated sports precinct for cricket, rugby, soccer, tennis, golf, bowls and athletics and a public pedestrian network linking the historic sites of the Mouille Point Lighthouse headquarters on the beachfront promenade and Fort Wynyard.

In addition, a display at each venue will contain aerial photographs, conceptual drawings, and plans. These will cover the history, uses of and proposals for the urban park.

The size of the Green Point Common sports, park and recreation area, which will be around 60 hectares, will also be compared with other park areas in the metropolitan area.

A visual presentation will also be given at each public meeting, and questions from the audience will be answered by subject experts from the city and consultants. An independent facilitator will run the meetings. Minutes will be taken and members of the public will also be able to record their comments in writing.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on March 26, 2007.

Notes:
1. The R120 million urban park will surround the world cup stadium and will become and intergrated park and sport environment.

http://www.greenpointcommon.co.za/_imgs/gpca_stadium_14.jpg

Mo Rush

March 26th, 2007, 08:43 PM

Ill try and change the link

Juanl

March 26th, 2007, 09:58 PM

11th-hour interdict to thwart 2010 stadium

March 26 2007 at 01:57PM

By Lindsay Dentlinger

A high-powered legal team for the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association (CEPA) is working around the clock to bring a High Court application to stop the building of the Green Point Stadium.

Papers could be served on the City of Cape Town before the end of the week.

CEPA chairman and former city councillor Arthur Wienburg said that the intention was to get an interdict against construction even before contractors began their work.

'There are a multitude of legal reasons'
But the matter was taking time because it was "more complex than first thought".

"There are a multitude of legal reasons to oppose the building of the stadium and there are many more reasons (on which) to base this application than originally thought," Wienburg said.

He did not want to elaborate on these yet.

Despite numerous failed attempts by objectors to stop the building of the stadium, Wienburg says the association is not backing down.

"It's not a case of if, it's when," he said.

'It is not a random project'
A meeting of the association was held on Thursday night but it was closed to the media. Wienburg said it had been held to encourage people to join the recently formed association and feel comfortable about expressing their views.

Another meeting at which supporters can join the association will be held this week.

Wienburg said there had been "overwhelming support" so far for the association's first project and that there was "real anger" among Capetonians over the building of the new stadium.

Wienburg said CEPA membership had reached the 100 mark and the opposition to the building of the stadium was being supported beyond residents living in the immediate vicinity.

The sod-turning ceremony took place last week and contractors are expected to be on site within the next two weeks.

But Wienburg said he did not believe it was too late to bring the project to a halt.

"It's only too late if you leave it and do nothing," he added. Wienburg said he did not believe that the city had been sharing all the necessary information on the stadium with ratepayers.

While the association was not against the 2010 soccer World Cup tournament itself, its concerns were rooted in financial and ecological arguments, he said.

The association did not want to see the Green Point Common "decimated" for a huge stadium.

"We want to stop all this madness taking place," Wienburg said.

"People will die in hospitals because of budget cuts while a few people watch 90 minutes of soccer."

The city's 2010 spokesperson, Pieter Cronje, confirmed that the city had received a request from CEPA's legal team to provide them with information on the statutory processes that had been followed in approving the building of the stadium.

The city was preparing a response to this, he said, but it viewed the association's intentions as "unproductive".

"There have been so many processes, with public participation and appeals, which have arrived at this conclusion (to build the stadium at Green Point)," Cronje said.

"It is not a random project. There is development at the Waterfront, Somerset Hospital and the (Central Business District)."

Cronje said the question that needed to be asked was whether the city wanted to continue maintaining the Green Point Common in its current run-down state.

Mo Rush

March 27th, 2007, 06:07 PM

dysan1

March 27th, 2007, 08:14 PM

but they will. where will the WP athletics move?

Mo Rush

March 27th, 2007, 09:09 PM

but they will. where will the WP athletics move?
as i said good luck to them. You spend a year dealing with every single legal process and listening to everyone, even the narrow mindedness of some of the GPCA members and after that CEPA(anyone heard of them before????) make statements like "cape town is against the stadium" and decide thats its their turn to make some noise.

As before, this has been mentioned.

The construction team will retain the grandstand, and a grass embankment will surround the other end of the stadium. A decision will be made on whether to retain the grand stand or construct a smaller more suitable venue. Various other excellent facilities exist in CT, that are/were used far more frequently than greenpoint.

Mo Rush

March 27th, 2007, 09:51 PM

Allianz Dimensions

* Stadium: 258 m x 227 m x 50 m
* Playing level: 120 m x 83 m
* Gross grass area: 111 m x 72 m
* Playing field: 105 m x 68 m
* Parking garage: 270,000 m²
Cost: 340 million Euros

Cape Town Dimensions (after height and radius reduction)

* Stadium: 274 m x 242 m x 48 m
* Playing level: 127 m x 83 m
* Gross grass area: 125 m x 72 m
* Playing field: 105 m x 68 m
* Podium: 40,000 m²
Cost: 295 million Euros

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/untitled.jpg?t=1175024884

Mo Rush

March 28th, 2007, 12:17 AM

http://www.greenpointcommon.com/_imgs/gpca_stadium_4.jpg

Capacity 2010:68,000 seats
Permanent Seats: 55,000
Temporary: 15,000 modular seats, removed post 2010

The design team has used its best resources to balance the project’s internal demands of delivery with the justified requirements brought to the site by current and potential future users. The vision of Green Point Common as a high value and high quality urban park and recreation area available for safe and flexible use by its citizens, has been one of the key drivers of the design thinking. Against the backdrop of Table Mountain and in the presence of the Atlantic Ocean, the stadium has been consciously designed as an element extending and contributing to the urban fabric and texture of Cape Town.

The roof

• The roof

Is located above the highest level of seats, and contains an accessible roof including
the ‘Ring of Fire’ lighting and media zone, with catwalk access into and through the
roof structure.

The roof is a critical component of the interior architecture. As a suspended roof plane, it focuses attention downwards onto the playing field. At the same time, the underside of the roof surface, hovering above the spectators, operates in a way similar to the façade. The translucent mesh skin under the
steel cable and truss structure will act as a luminous disc during days of sunlight and will transmit the colour and atmosphere of the day into the stadium interior. The double skin design of the roof further makes it possible to accommodate (unsightly) services therein and, for example, avoid the use of pylons for the floodlighting. It fulfils an important function as far as noise attenuation is concerned. The roof structure is designed as an acoustic "body” with its own internal volume. The principle of utilising the air space inside the body of the roof as a noise buffer is one of the compelling simple and active design principles applied to the stadium. The key to this principle is the requirement that the “inner” (lower) and “outer” (upper) surface of the roof structure must have different densities and therefore display different acoustic performance characteristics.

Use of ETFE (used in the Beijing Olympic Stadium and the skin of the Water Cube(Olympic Aquatic Centre), Allianz Arena - stadium roof and walls

http://www.sportsvenue-technology.com/projects/swimming_centre/images/Watercube04.jpg
http://www.lt.arch.tu-muenchen.de/images/images_aktuell/050629_arena.jpg

The current design foresees and ETFE (fibreglass-like) cloth membrane, which is partly permeable. This “breathing” softer inner skin disperses sound waves and, since it is not a hard surface, absorbs sound into the body of the roof. The outer (top) skin is currently designed and budgeted as a fixed glass skin, which provides a hard resonant surface which reflects sound waves back into the body of the roof. Through the sloping surface of the roof, sound waves are diffracted back against the soft inner skin membrane, where they are further dispersed.

The Green Point stadium has one primary façade system, which is a cable-suspended ETFE membrane similar, if not identical, to the lower skin of the roof structure. The exact type of ETFE membrane will depend on the results of the acoustic model. ETFE membranes are available in many types of grades and textures, which have been independently tested for their acoustic performance. The starting point of the façade design, therefore, is a scientific
certainty as to the basic acoustical properties of the primary façade material.

The ETFE membrane forms a continuous, taut but flexible skin, clipped into a lightweight aluminium frame. The frame is stiffened against the massive concrete structure of the stadium by means of round hollow steel sections. Vibrations occurring in the façade itself, either from emitted noise or from wind vibrations imposed on the structure, are absorbed through the stiffening rods into the building’s massive structure.

Less than 15% of the bowl’s inside surface lets through sound waves directly to the outer walls of the building. In addition, only about 70% of the stadium
façade is covered only by the vertical mesh membrane.

This results in about 10.5% of the outer façade being exposed to direct noise emitted from inside the stadium. As mentioned previously, some of the areas that are directly under the roof edge will have a more carefully detailed double façade skin application, which will perform better than the average outer façade.

The continuous outer skin has to deal with about 8% of the direct noise from inside the stadium, after these areas have been accounted for. Preliminary tests indicate that the ETFE membrane selected for the façade, has a porosity of 60%, meaning that it further breaks down sound waves directed at it.

http://www.greenpointcommon.com/_imgs/gpca_stadium_5.jpg

Noise control and ventilation

Concerns have been voiced about the noise emission from the plaza level (level 2) exits from the stadium, which occur under the outer façade. This is being tested in detail in the acoustic model. The intention is to apply sound-absorbing or sound-reducing materials to the ceilings of these public entrances, to break up reflecting sound waves between floor and ceiling at this level of the stadium. The vertical gab between the inside bowl and the corridor is only 2.2m and the middle tier is cantilevering over the lower tier. 38 of 72 grids are open to the outside, all others contain restrooms toward the outside and concessions towards the inner concourse. The inner corridor has a depth of 17m towards the concession stands. The distance from the concourse towards the outer edge of the façade column varies between 11 and 30 m. The substantial floor plate depth (i.e. distance between bowl edge and outer structural edge of stadium) on this level assists in dispersing sound waves escaping from the stadium bowl into the space under the raked stadium seats. Further, as in all modern soccer arenas, the pitch is subject to huge ventilation problems. A blanket of cold air will accommodate itself on the pitch and the opening in the roof alone is too small to circulate the
air down to and on the pitch. Good ventilation can only be achieved with cross ventilation above the lower concourse together with four diagonal openings in the corners. Thus 53% of the concourse area is open to the outside and cannot be closed to achieve a ventilation effect. The design is aimed at finding an optimal solution for both sound and ventilation aspects.

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/6489/slide27xs5.jpg

hngcm

March 28th, 2007, 08:22 AM

just wondering how the roof is supported

www.sercan.de

March 28th, 2007, 11:26 AM

15,000 modular seats, removed post 2010

why and where are they

Benjuk

March 29th, 2007, 03:53 PM

just wondering how the roof is supported

Positive vibes.

Mo Rush

March 29th, 2007, 06:08 PM

just wondering how the roof is supported

1. Temporary seating will be used in the third tier. (13,000) After the world cup will be used as office and convention space.
2. Roof is supported by cables between the double layer of ETFE membrane.

XCRunner

March 30th, 2007, 12:09 AM

The stadium kind of reminds me of Allianz

Mo Rush

March 30th, 2007, 09:21 AM

without the many bubbles and huge parking garage, better setting, more greenery hehe.

hngcm

March 30th, 2007, 09:54 AM

just wondering what those yellow flags are

Mo Rush

March 30th, 2007, 10:11 AM

the logo of local club kaizer chiefs who arent even based in CT

Meetings begin for public to discuss 2010 stadium

By Staff Writer

THE City of Cape Town has begun a series of 11 public meetings to give residents a chance to comment on plans for the proposed redevelopment of Green Point Common, site of the new multipurpose stadium for the 2010 World Cup.

The meetings began in Atlantis last night and continue to May 25. Information packs are available at city libraries and the public has until May 25 to comment.

Other meetings are: Woodstock Town Hall on April 12; Gugulethu Sports Complex on April 19; Lentegeur Civic Centre in Mitchells Plain on April 23; Muizenberg Civic Centre on May 3; Athlone Civic Centre on May 10; Strand Civic Centre on May 16; Parow Civic Centre on May 17; OR Thambo Sports Complex, Khayelitsha on May 23; Kraaifontein Civic Centre on May 24; and Scotsche Kloof Civic Centre on May 25.

The public's comments will be recorded in a report which the council has to submit to the Environment, Planning and Economic Development MEC Tasneem Essop by July 6.

The public participation process and the report are requirements in the MEC's Record of Decision issued in January, when she gave authorisation for the building of the new stadium on a portion of Green Point Common and on the site of the Metropolitan Golf Course.

The urban park concept plan will be explained at the meetings.

It will show the proposed park, a consolidated sports precinct and a public pedestrian network linking the Mouille Point Lighthouse headquarters to Fort Wynyard along the scenic beachfront promenade.

A display at each venue will contain aerial photographs, conceptual drawings and plans.

The size of the Green Point Common area will also be compared with other park areas in the metropolitan area.

The city said advertisements of the meetings would appear in newspapers.

Published on the web by Cape Times on March 29, 2007. © Cape Times 2007. All rights reserved.

RobH

March 30th, 2007, 10:14 AM

Kaizer Chiefs FC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizer_Chiefs_Football_Club

NavyBlue

March 31st, 2007, 02:08 AM

1. Temporary seating will be used in the third tier. (13,000) After the world cup will be used as office and convention space.
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/6489/slide27xs5.jpg

Is this a render of the 68,000 seater to be used for the WC or the post tournament configuration?

Is there before/after (WC) pics that illustrates just how 13,000 seats will be removed from the top tier?

TBH I can't work out how they plan to do it...

Mo Rush

March 31st, 2007, 12:28 PM

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/6489/slide27xs5.jpg

Is this a render of the 68,000 seater to be used for the WC or the post tournament configuration?

Is there before/after (WC) pics that illustrates just how 13,000 seats will be removed from the top tier?

TBH I can't work out how they plan to do it...

http://www.greenpointcommon.co.za/_imgs/gpca_stadium_7.jpg
http://www.greenpointcommon.co.za/_imgs/gpca_stadium_10.jpg

Mo Rush

April 2nd, 2007, 01:09 PM

Old sods disappear from golf course as work on 2010 stadium kicks off

By JAMES TINLEY

After months of heated public debate, delays and threats of legal action, construction crews this week finally moved in to begin work on the Green Point 2010 World Cup Stadium.

The stadium is being built on the Metropolitan Golf Course and a portion of the Common, a decision made despite objections and threatened legal action to stop the construction, said the city's 2010 spokesman, Pieter Cronje.

"At the present time we are moving full-steam ahead with our plans. There is no time to lose or to wait - we have to be ready for October 2009 and we have much work to do."

Construction crews have begun removing and conserving the turf and some of the grass will be replanted in parks throughout Cape Town, while the rest will be sold.

Indigenous trees have been carefully dug up and are being stored at a nursery where they will be kept until suitable homes are found in Cape Town city parks and at the site of the new stadium.

The trees and sods are being removed to allow for the deep excavation that is to begin next week.

The partial demolition of the existing stadium and the provision of bulk services - including running electricity lines and setting up sewage systems - form part of the early phases of construction.

Earlier this week the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association threatened legal action to stop construction but the city has not been served with any papers, Cronje said.

"There have been several opportunities for public participation where the public had their say and all of it has been taken into account," he said.

"There has been proper due process and it is not productive to have continued debate about the stadium location. We need to go ahead with building to have it completed for the Fifa inspectors in October 2009."

Eleven public meetings about the plans for the reconstruction of the remainder of the Common will be held over the next two months. Residents have until May 25 to express their opinions about the Common.

The city's plan for an urban park, which would contain a sports precinct and a path along the beachfront to link the Mouille Point lighthouse to Fort Wynard, will be explained at the public forums.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on April 1, 2007.

Wezza

April 3rd, 2007, 05:24 AM

I'm not too sold on the exterior of this one just yet, maybe it will grow on me.

Juanl

April 3rd, 2007, 01:36 PM

2010 stadium process was 'fast-tracked'
John Yeld
April 03 2007 at 01:10PM

Opponents of the 2010 Soccer World Cup stadium being built on the Green Point Common say they had little opportunity to raise their concerns because of a "highly accelerated" set of approval processes.

These processes were often run in parallel, instead of sequentially as they should have been. Also, many of the objections that were recorded in the various specialist reports that were part of the statutory environmental impact assessment (EIA) report - including finance, health issues and social impact - were either entirely omitted from the material put before the decision-makers, or were consolidated into "highly misleading" summaries.

These are among the major points in the 150-page founding affidavit of the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association that has gone to the Cape High Court in a bid to overturn all the approvals necessary to make the new stadium happen.

It argues that a "fast-tracked" EIA process was imposed by the city council, with distinct procedural steps being "conflated".

'the entire process has been stampeded to an undignified consummation'
"It is thus that the process was fraught with the flouting of the most fundamental requisites, warranting the setting aside of the various approvals."

According to the association's affidavit, the "elaborate" approval process for what was one of the biggest construction projects in the country's history - and which had elicited massive public opposition - was "rammed through the system in a matter of months".

"In the process, authorities rode roughshod over the most elementary principles of public participation and informed, reasoned decision-making."

On January 27 2006, the city council had "embraced" the Green Point option for a new stadium, instead of either Newlands or Athlone, "without public consultation or consideration of alternatives".

There was a failure to include other site alternatives in the EIA process, forcing a decision between either "on the Common" or "not at all".

Fifa had exerted "unrelenting" pressure on the South African authorities, warning that construction deadlines would not be met unless work began, the affidavit states.

"It is thus scarcely an exaggeration to say that the entire process has been stampeded to an undignified consummation, in the interests of satisfying a deadline arbitrarily imposed in distant Zurich.

"Moreover, the city has taken to invoking the spectre of the stadium not being completed in time for 2010 in an apparent attempt to stampede opponents into acquiescence.

"In the course of both the environmental approval and the city planning process, objectors have raised a host of objections to the project. All have been swept aside in the stampede to approval."

The affidavit notes that the constitution and various pieces of legislation emphasise the need for continuous public participation in decision-making at all levels of government.

"The failure of the city to engage in public consultation at the initial site selection stage in itself renders the siting decision subject to review and being set aside.

"Indeed, for the city to make a decision of this magnitude - one that will change the face of the city forever, and threaten to drain the public purse for years to come - without the most extensive public participation embracing all communities in the city, is utterly antithetical to the participative system of governance established by the constitution."

Major points in the affidavit about the EIA process include:

There was - "perhaps most damagingly" - a total exclusion of the evaluation of alternative sites for the stadium and the alternative land use of the Green Point Common, contrary to the statutory requirements of the EIA process.

Communities now deemed by the city council to have an interest in the new Urban Park planned for the Green Point Common include Atlantis, Khayelitsha, Mitchell's Plain and Athlone, but none of these was included as interested parties for the stadium process.

Media notices about the EIA were only in English and Afrikaans, not in any "indigenous" languages.

No rational basis was given for the conclusion that the sewerage infrastructure was adequate for the stadium, with the disposal of sewerage in Cape Town being "a very serious problem".

Many of the specialist studies in the EIA were flawed because insufficient data was made available to specialists to enable them to undertake an effective or proper assessment of the various impacts.

The economic impact study authors acknowledged their assessment "has not been as detailed and thorough as warranted for a project of this scale and significance".

Time constraints necessitated a "drastic truncation" of the visual impact assessment because of limited information on the stadium's final design.

A wind impact assessment has not been completed.

The authors of the social impact assessment acknowledged the "very tight time-frame" which rendered a thorough social assessment "impossible".

The serious deficiencies in the environmental approval had a "knock-on effect" that rendered the planning approvals "equally unlawful".

The affidavit points out that the constitution exhorts the state to "secure ecologically sustainable development while promoting justifiable economic and social development".

Mo Rush

April 3rd, 2007, 06:13 PM

Mo Rush

April 3rd, 2007, 06:14 PM

Juanl which city are you from?

Juanl

April 3rd, 2007, 09:27 PM

I'm a Jo'burger. What else?

2010: 'Why we'll stop stadium'

April 03 2007 at 03:36PM

By Lindsay Dentlinger

Calling the 2010 Green Point Stadium "a monstrous carbuncle", an environmental lobby group on Tuesday mounted the strongest challenge to the project so far - in an urgent application in the Cape High Court to halt construction.

The application by the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association (CEPA) comes exactly two weeks after the sod-turning ceremony on the Metropolitan golf course to mark the official start of construction.

The CEPA, which said the new stadium was "nothing less than a monstrous carbuncle that will mar the face of the renowned beauty of Cape Town", says it is taking action in the public interest and on behalf of those whose environmental and administrative justice rights under the constitution have been violated.

The group is asking the court to set aside virtually every decision by either the provincial government or the city that has led to preparations for building to start in April.

The CEPA is asking the court to declare as unlawful:

The environmental record of decision (ROD) issued by the provincial Environmental department in October, which grants approval for the stadium to be built on the Green Point Common.

The revised ROD by environmental MEC Tasneem Essop in January, when she dismissed appeals against the choice of site.

The group is also challenging several land use planning applications, including the rezoning of the common from a public space area to one for community use to incorporate a stadium.

It wants the court to instruct the city to return the common to the state it was in prior to building preparations.

CEPA says after it earlier expressed the intention to take legal action, it had been given an undertaking by the city last week that it would not take any irreversible steps on the site in the short term.

The CEPA is headed by chairperson Arthur Wienburg, who could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, as he is observing a religious day.

Seven respondents have been cited in the application his organisation is filing, including the director of integrated environmental management of the provincial department of environmental affairs, the Environment MEC, the City of Cape Town, the city director of building and planning development management, world soccer body Fifa, the 2010 Local Organising Committee and the Metropolitan Golf Club.

This is the most significant step to date by a civic group opposed to the project. All previous threats of legal action have been defused.

The city reached a compromise with the Green Point Common Association (GPCA), which until now had put up the stiffest resistance to the stadium plans, giving the association a say in the management of the urban park planned around the stadium precinct.

The CEPA, however, wants the court to set aside a decision taken by the city director of planning that authorises the digging of earthworks, deviation of bulk services and the foundations.

Central to the group's argument is that the approvals for the project have all been inconsistent with the constitution, the National Environmental Management Act, the Environmental Conservation Act, the Promotion of the Administrative Justice Act, the Land Use Planning Ordinance and the National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act.

The court will be asked to prevent the City of Cape Town from conducting any building operations until it has ruled on the validity of the approvals process, and to instruct it to reverse any land clearing, excavation or construction that may have already taken place.

The organisation says while it is in support of the event itself, the building of a new stadium would be a gross misuse of public funds.

Mouille_Point_Guy

April 4th, 2007, 12:32 PM

Mo Rush

April 4th, 2007, 12:37 PM

I live opposite the green point common and almost next door to the golf course. I attended the meetings held by the so called residents association and I have to say that the whole process of selecting Green Point had nothing to do with reality. I am about to join CEPA as the location is the worst possible place for such a stadium. Objections from residents were never actually heard as they were overruled by both local goverment and provisional government. The location is not good for Cape Town, the stadium needs to be built on the other side of town where it would be accessible to the vast majority of football supporters, who happen to live on the other side of town as do most of the residents of Cape Town. The transportation to this site is horrendous and totally unsuited for a stadium of this size. Most other informed people will realise that the preferred sites were no where near Green Point yet decisions were made by FIFA , by applying pressure on the South African government. This country has a huge problem with AIDS and health care, yet the hospital next to the site for the stadium is being closed, just after receiving an upgrade. The Large hospital in Cape Town is loosing 40 odd doctors due to budget cuts, this country needs health care not multi billion rand stadiums. Common Sense must prevail, the normal process of decision making was never followed and I for one am glad to stand up and say that this legal action is the correct response to the decision ot build a stadium in this location. There are far more deserving locations closer to people who actually need this stadium, many who are low income earners and need uplifting projects in their areas. Common Sense and Due process must be allowed to win the day when billions of Rands are being spent. I realise people will disagree with me on this issue however the fact is that alternative sites were never adequately considered and this location was chosen merely as a result of the shortage of time remaining to construction a stadium and also pressure from external sources.

Thanks for your view and good luck in fighting the city, the LOC, the national gvt and FIFA. I respect your opinions and you certainly are allowed to voice them as you please.

The idea or belief that large stadia solve socio economic issues in poorer areas is a fallacy, my question would be have you been to athlone in the last two years? Have you seen the impact, if any, the new stadium has had on the surrounds? "Poorer" areas needs service, schools and improved infrastructure, a new stadium could not be supported in such an environment.

The constraints of time, money and space were always made public. What the CEPA has done at this very late stage will jeopardize 2010 directly and seriously hurt CT,if they had spoken up earlier, less harm would have been done. Therefore I don't believe them when they claim that they "support" the event and "support" the construction of a new stadium. When an organization makes such a blatantly tactical move more harm gets done at the end of the day.

A stadium, connected to the waterfront, along with developments at the somerset site, along with a R120 million urban park within minutes of the CBD does make sense. This is what the common looks like today: not so green and def. not so common

The fact that the city inherited the greenpoint decision from FIFA is common knowledge, but there is reality and the reality is that the legal proceedings will hurt Cape Town, the Western Cape and the 2010 FIFA world cup as a whole. More harm will be done than good, to believe that the $1 billion investment in the waterfront was not linked to the new stadium and improved common would be naive.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/154/431385169_219ac5ff0a_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/426639546_90adf7c5dd_o.jpg

Juanl

April 4th, 2007, 12:37 PM

2010: Newlands was Safa's 'venue of choice'
Melanie Gosling
April 04 2007 at 09:43AM

Court papers lodged on Tuesday to halt the building of the Green Point Stadium for the 2010 World Cup paint a picture of "political in-fighting and bureaucratic wrangling" that rode roughshod over public objections and ended with Capetonians being told "it's Green Point or nothing".

The application to have the Green Point decision scrapped is being brought by the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association (CEPA).

The approval process for one of the biggest construction projects the country has seen - which has elicited massive public opposition - was "rammed through the system in a matter of months. The authorities rode roughshod over the most elementary principles of public participation and informed, rational decision-making", the papers said.

When South Africa was selected in 2004 to host the 2010 World Cup, Newlands was presented by the SA Football Association and the City of Cape Town as the venue of choice. This was accepted, the papers said.

'Fifa made it clear that Green Point was its choice'
Then Newlands fell out of favour. In September 2005, at a joint provincial cabinet and city management meeting, politicians were persuaded to propose Athlone Stadium instead. Premier Ebrahim Rasool's spokesperson said the Athlone stadium would "turn the key to many of the hopes of our people on the Cape Flats".

But Athlone was unacceptable to Fifa because television audiences would not want to see the surrounding "shacks and poverty".

"Fifa made it clear that Green Point was its choice. Government lost no time in adopting Fifa's preference" and put pressure on the province and city to fall into line.

"In January 2006, the city embraced the Green Point option, but with no public consultation or examination of alternative sites.

"In March 2006, Mayor Helen Zille temporarily halted the project and commissioned a financial analysis and an alternative site study. Neither study was made public nor presented to the decision-makers."

Public opposition to the Green Point site was mounting and 1 329 objections were registered, the papers said.

Fifa put "unrelenting pressure" on South Africa to construct the 2010 stadiums, and the head of the local organising committee, Danny Jordaan, insisted that construction of Green Point begin by April.

Thus public objections were "swept aside in the stampede to approval" to satisfy "a deadline arbitrarily imposed in distant Zurich".

Cepa is asking the Cape High Court to declare unlawful and set aside:

The approval by the director of the provincial department of environmental affairs and development planning of the city's application to build the stadium;

The decision by Tasneem Essop, MEC for Environmental Affairs, Planning and Economic Development, to uphold that decision;

The approval to rezone a portion of the Common and the grant departures to allow 2 000 permanent and 3 000 temporary parking bays;

The decision by the city to close a public place; and

The city's planning department's decision to allow it to go ahead with earthworks.

Cepa is also asking that the above approvals be declared inconsistent with the constitution, that the court prohibit the city from doing any building operations and that the city reinstates Green Point Common to its former state.

Mouille_Point_Guy

April 4th, 2007, 12:57 PM

Mo Rush

April 4th, 2007, 01:51 PM

The idea or belief that large stadia solve socio economic issues in poorer areas is a fallacy, my question would be have you been to athlone in the last two years? Have you seen the impact, if any, the new stadium has had on the surrounds?

Answer = Was that not one of the reasons for building the stadium ?

The constrains or time, money and space was always made public. What the CEPA has done at this very late stage will jeapordize 2010 directly and seriously hurt CT,if they had spoken up earlier, less harm would have been done. Therefore I don't believe them when they claim that they "support" the event and "support" the construction of a new stadium. When an organization makes such a blatantly tactical move more harm gets done at the end of the day.

Answer = Time delays were governments fault not residents, the original site was never proceeded with.

A stadium, connected to the waterfront, along with developments at the somerset site, along with a R120 million urban park within minutes of the CBD does make sense. This is what the common looks like today: not so green and def. not so common

Answer = Somerset site = knocking a hospital down , and I work in town and walk home , the time to walk is almost an hour not minutes and I walk fast as do hikes of 5 days or more so I am not a slow unfit walker

It appears you are not fully informed of what actually went on nor how this whole issue was forced on Cape Town.

One of the reasons for building the stadium was socio-economic impact. This cannot simply be achieved by plonking a staidum in a poorer area but a benefit would be achieved by its location, associated developments, the proximity to the city and waterfront. A stand alone stadium in greenpoint would not result in any major benefit but its location is what makes this situation different to the story of lets say blue downs.

True, time delays were gvt's fault in a way. However after 15 months of debate for CEPA to step in at this time is a tactical move, one which will def harm cape town, the western cape and the 2010 FIFA world cup. I am def not fooled by the last minute attempt by CEPA which might not be aimed at causing more harm but in reality it will.

I am not aware of the Somerset hospital being knocked down but I am aware of this

"The site was earmarked for an estimated R1-billion development that would include a new 260-bed hospital, a five-star hotel and a commercial and housing development, said Fransman."

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20070131113452960C280736

My last question:

Have you seen the impact, if any, of Athlone Stadium on the surrounding area? The 40,000 seat Athlone Stadium upgrade which is under construction will be more than sufficient to support the strong soccer base that exists within the Cape Flats area.

Mouille_Point_Guy

April 4th, 2007, 09:09 PM

Mo Rush

April 4th, 2007, 09:46 PM

"One of the reasons for building the stadium was socio-economic impact. This cannot simply be achieved by plonking a staidum in a poorer area but a benefit would be achieved by its location, associated developments, the proximity to the city and waterfront. A stand alone stadium in greenpoint would not result in any major benefit but its location is what makes this situation different to the story of lets say blue downs.

"

Reply

1) question - have you ever attended a SA football league match?
I have

2) question - have you ever attended a European football league match?
I have

3) I have been around athlone, and it still needs upliftment, the stadium needs supporting infrastructure.

The Cape Argus tonight reports that the environmental agencies eg. the heritage organisations declined to approve the site - yet this was ignored - why ? This is qa legal requirement , CEPA is not the only environmental orginastion to oppose this site.

The Argus paper continues to say that the decisions were made with unacceptable haste, incomplete information - even the limited environmental report had the comment to that effect along with major concerns including the sewerage issue.

The wholeprocess was rushed, however the final decision was made this year and within months weeks CEPA objected - if we forget the over 1000 objections listed well before which the government choose to ignore and even refused to make public. The normal porcess was not followed - this is a rushed decision which will blight Cape Town for a very long time to come.

The stadium is supposed to provide facilities to the public , and no one can disagree that football supporters live on the other side of town, as do 99.9999 % of cape town residents. If the site does not uplift the area then inadequate planning and infrastructure was developed to support the stadium - does Cape Town need two football stadiums seating 40 000 people ?

Green point used to support Hellenic football club - they moved as insufficient fans came to Green point - socio economics in play.

In europe most supporters do not hang around shops after a football match, they go home with their sons or to the pub with their mates. The Waterfront is already an adequate infrastructure, I have on many occassions seen the entrances closed to more people due to the fact that the complex has its full quoto of people inside. Another 50 000 people descending on the waterfront after a soccer match , I dont think so.

Thanks for the intelligent debate without resorting to name calling that occurs in many forums. Sadly your comment of - good luck taking on the government - the end result may be that we are fighting a lost cause, however this is supposed to be a democracy and due process is supposed to be part of the whole method of choosing a location. Time will tell if the democractic and due process is real and whether people actually have a democratic system.

Even for example in the UK stadiums were built that had major supportable issues after large profile single events were held, sadly the people of cape town will have years to look at the marvelous massive structure that is not economically viable after the FIFA executives got to watch football and have a view of the world heritage site of Table Mountain.

To your questions:
1. Yes
2. Yes
3. If the heritage requirements were complete ignored, or the results or recommendations of the heritage report were simply shoved aside then the City of Cape Town and/or responsible person/authorities will need to answer for this in court.
4. A rushed decision over 15 months? I understand that certain deadlines were set for for the EIA, but as far as I am concerned, http://www.enviropartnership.co.za/projects.html (Enviropartnership), the organization responsible for EIA's for projects such as the Cape Town International Airport, Chapman's Peak upgrade and toll road and about fifty other projects of a reasonable scale, should be held responsible if their procedures or investigations were not adequate. However, if there are any significant flaws in their work, then should all their previous projects be investigated?

I do not believe that the quality of work produced in the EIA's is of a poor standard. From the list of projects this organization has worked on in the past I am struggling to believe that they would discard the quality of their work simply to push through a stadium decision. I have read many if not all the EIA's relating to the stadium project and I wonder where the EIA's are for many of the other world cup stadia.

5. No, CT does not need two football stadia of 40,000 + capacity, Athlone does not meet FIFA's requirement to host World Cup matches and that is not based solely on the issue of lack of seating capacity or the neighbourhood in which its located.

It is rather disappointing that the City has not been able to include an athletics track into the stadium, improving the stadium's viability. The cost of reducing noise pollution is put at around R700 million, to ensure that the outer facade uses ETFE to retain noise within the stadium.

An ideal site would be Wingfield, however, time and cost constraints were not on our sides.

6. Another 70,000 people descending on the waterfront, CBD, and areas around greenpoint. I don't believe that people will simply move onto the waterfront site, but will move along the fan mile into the city and the Fan Viewing Park planned/proposed for the Grand Parade.

This waterfront which currently sees over 20 million visitors annually, will undergo a R7 billion upgrade before 2010 to enhance accessibility. The current expansion is probably only around R300 million, so that gives us a good idea of the scale of the project. Along with the planned Granger Bay Boulevard I have no reason to believe that R1 or 2 billion will be more than sufficient to cope with increased capacities.

Dubaiworld along with Atkins master planners in the UK will certainly have their work cut out in planning for this mass of people but its certainly not beyond them considering their prestigious project portfolio. They have already reached advanced stages of planning which complement the atmosphere and design of the waterfront today. (no skyscrapers sorry).

7. I think many people have perhaps naively decided that the stadium and its financial/economic future is doomed. Perhaps I am an optimist but I do believe that the stadium has a future. With the selection of an excellent private operator ,(not a casino license) with excellent experience in managing sports facilities we could be kicking ourselves for not building a stadium sooner. I am sad though that the stadium will not include an athletics track. It would certainly come in handy in a future Olympic bid.

The private operator will have the resources and the incentive to market the stadium on an international scale, something the City of Cape Town is (1) not capable of considering their pathetic record in managing/maintaining the various public sports facilities in Cape Town, and (2) not experienced enough to do.

So lets wait for the response to the call/request for a private operator and see if there is interest from suitable operators who believe they can make the stadium a success, before we jump to conclusions about its financial future. If the private operator's have one thing they cant complain about its the magnificent location of the stadium.

I remember a certain political party who were against the construction of the convention centre, because they believed it would have a doomed economic future. The CTICC has added R4,5bn to the GDP in the four years its been in existence. The CTICC is operated by Amsterdam RAI, I don't think anyone could doubt the success of the CTICC. That said, I understand that the two projects are of a vastly different nature.

The issues regarding stadium sustainability will hit most major cities. Zille's determination to sort out funding and contingency costs at the start of the project is one way in avoiding a situation like Wembley stadium. Sort out stadium issues at the start and not during or after construction.

It's quite funny, I was about to thank you for being able to keep this discussion going before I read your note of thank you. Yes, it is tough to get a decent debate or discussion going without somebody losing their cool. At the end of the day I do believe both of us want the best for Cape Town and the entire metropolitan area in general and thats what matters. However, I must add that I do not believe that the legal action of CEPA will help us in achieving that better future, a more suitable procedure could and can still be implemented to discuss and analyze the points put forward by CEPA.

thanks again.

Mo Rush

April 4th, 2007, 09:58 PM

With regards to Athlone, I am not sure of the current status, but a Central Improvement District Organization has or will be formed shortly, to deal with issues surrounding Athlone. This was put forward Andrew Borraine, CEO of the Cape Town Partnership, largely responsible for the success that is the Cape Town CBD.

http://www.capetownpartnership.co.za

Partnership advises Athlone Stakeholders on Formation of a CID

The Cape Town Partnership and the Central CID recently advised stakeholders in the Athlone area on the formation of a CID to achieve urban regeneration. Using positive outcomes achieved in the Cape Town Central City, amongst others, it is hoped that a CID would transform the Athlone CBD into a competitive and attractive shopping destination within a safe and secure, well-managed business hub.

It is expected that an application to establish a CID in Athlone will be lodged with the City of Cape Town by December this year.

Mo Rush

April 5th, 2007, 11:34 AM

200 000 Fans to hit city during World Cup

By Anél Powell

CAPE TOWN must "brace itself for an influx of at least 200 000 football fans" during the 2010 World Cup, says MEC for Transport and Public Works Marius Fransman - four times the number originally predicted.

But he is confident the city's transport infrastructure will cope. "Funding is on track and the World Cup transport can happen."

The visitor numbers will give an indication of how much investment is needed to upgrade transport and meet accommodation needs.

"We have to make sure the transport action plan is up and running and responds to these numbers," Denis Lillie, project director of World Cup 2010, said.

"This is an exciting prospect and also a major challenge," said Fransman. He said work had already started on several of the transport upgrade plans.

"All key projects are either on stream or the design has been completed."

These include the widening of lanes on the N1 and N2 and the extension of the Khayelitsha rail corridor by 4.5km.

He said R450 million had been allocated for the Koeberg interchange.

Janine Myburgh, president of the Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said in a separate statement that the Koeberg interchange would play an important role during 2010 as it connected the city with the Winelands, which would provide both accommodation and attractions for the football tourists.

"The increasing reliance on road transport, the poor state of public transport and the dramatic increase in car ownership combined to make the Koeberg interchange one of the most pressing problems in the city and it deserves urgent attention.

"We are glad that it is to receive priority treatment, but at the same time we are concerned about possible delays to other projects."

Fransman said other critical projects, such as the N1 bus lane, would start even if there was not yet funding for them.

Some R1.9 billion has been allocated by all three spheres of government to improve Cape Town's transport infrastructure.

The long-awaited public transport operating entity, that would allow for the integrated management of road and rail transport, has been endorsed "in principle" by national government, said Fransman.

He said the agreement between the city and province would be signed by the end of May. "We've created the institutional mechanism for cooperation to happen."

The city's transport portfolio committee meets today to discuss 2010 transport projects. Rail, as a high capacity public transport system, has been identified as a critical focus area.

The R60 million upgrade to Athlone, Heideveld and Langa stations is expected to start in August.

The visitors' survey, done by transport specialists Axios Consulting, shows that the 50 000 estimated last year was a gross underestimation of the number of people expected to be in Cape Town during the 2010 event.

Fransman said 40 000 of these visitors would be from other African countries.

During the peak period, between the eighth and 14th day of the World Cup, the city's hotels and registered accommodation facilities will have to handle an average of 125 000 overnight stays. This excludes the 10 000 media representatives expected in the city during that time and the people who will stay with friends or family.

The city will host eight games and a semi-final during the World Cup.

Lillie said the English Football Association had already indicated that it would base its team in Cape Town, a "major economic coup" for the city.

"As a department we want to give the assurance to international teams that we will be able to offer a world-class transport system in a safe environment," Fransman said.

Lillie said the official fan park in the CBD would be on the Grand Parade, while three others have been proposed for Philippi, Athlone and Bellville.

These fan parks would be built to take traffic away from the central city.

Richard Gordge, director of Axios Consulting, said national travel demands during 2010 would depend on the match schedule.

He said the study, which was done in interviews with the supporters' associations of major teams, hoteliers and airport officials and in online surveys, showed strong local support for the hosting of World Cup matches in Cape Town.

"It is sad that a small number of people who are opposed to the tournament have been hogging all the headlines in the Western Cape, even though the majority of local people want Cape Town to be a key World Cup venue," Fransman said of the latest legal challenge against the building of the stadium.

Meanwhile, the city's mayoral committee yesterday approved a recommendation to recognise the Metropolitan Road Traffic Management Co-ordinating Committee as the co-ordinating structure for road traffic management.

Published on the web by Cape Times on April 5, 2007. © Cape Times 2007. All rights reserved.

Mo Rush

April 5th, 2007, 11:44 AM

ENGLAND to use Cape Town as World Cup Base

Athlone, Heideveld and Langa stations is expected to begin in August.

The visitors' survey, carried out by transport specialists Axios Consulting, shows the figure of 50 000 given last year was a gross underestimation of the number of visitors expected to be in Cape Town during the 2010 event.

Fransman said 40 000 of the visitors would be from other African countries.

During the peak period, between the eighth and 14th days of the World Cup, the city's hotels and registered accommodation establishments would have to handle, on average, 125 000 overnight stays a day. These excluded the 10 000 media representatives expected in Cape Town and people who would stay with friends or relatives.

The city is to host eight games and a semi-final.

Lillie said the English Football Association had announced it was to base its team in Cape Town. This was a "major economic coup" for the city.

Fransman said: "As a department we want to give the assurance to international teams that we will be able to offer a world-class transport system in a safe environment."

Lillie said the CBD fan park would be on the Grand Parade. Three others had been proposed, for Philippi, Athlone and Bellville. These would be built to take traffic away from the central city.

More than 80% of people surveyed said they would visit a fan park.

Richard Gordge, director of Axios Consulting, said national travel demands during 2010 would depend on the match schedule.

He said the study, which entailed online surveys and interviewing the supporters' associations of major teams, hoteliers and airport officials, had found strong support in Cape Town for the city's hosting of World Cup matches.

"It is sad that a small number of people who are opposed to the tournament have been hogging all the headlines in the Western Cape (while) the majority of local people want Cape Town to be a key World Cup venue," Fransman said, referring to the court case challenging approvals granted for the stadium.

Meanwhile, the city's mayoral committee yesterday approved a recommendation to recognise the Metropolitan Road Traffic Management Co-ordinating Committee as the co-ordinating structure for road traffic management.

Published on the web by Cape Times on April 5, 2007. © Cape Times 2007. All rights reserved.

Mo Rush

April 5th, 2007, 11:50 AM

Mo Rush

April 5th, 2007, 11:59 AM

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/249/446482190_4903ffe70e_b.jpg

Mouille_Point_Guy

April 5th, 2007, 12:55 PM

Heritage authority 'rejected stadium'

By John Yeld

The Western Cape's heritage authority rejected plans for the new 2010 World Cup stadium at Green Point, but its negative finding was not contained in the final environmental impact assessment (EIA) report, according to opponents of the stadium.

This is one of the arguments in the 150-page founding affidavit of Kendal Jarvis, a member of the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association (CEPA) that is applying for an urgent Cape High Court order to overturn all the stadium approvals granted by the provincial authorities and the city.

He also points out that the negative heritage assessment was based on a given height of the stadium of approximately 40m above the natural ground level, whereas the planned height is now 48m.

His affidavit states that before deciding whether the stadium development could proceed, the province's environment and planning department had to take into account any comments and recommendations of Heritage Western Cape - the province's statutory heritage authority - regarding the development.

A heritage assessment had been done and submitted to BELCom, the heritage authority's built environment and landscape committee tasked with commenting on the stadium proposal in September.

The committee had met on October 19 to consider the issue, and the minutes of that meeting read: "Based on the conclusions in the HIA (heritage impact assessment) and the VIA (visual impact assessment) and given the impacts on the heritage resources, both of the alternatives having high impacts, the committee does not support either alternative (the existing stadium site or golf course site).

"The reasons for the committee's decision are that the scale of the proposed stadium is too great: it is too tall, it is too space extensive with a very large footprint, and it is too bulky. Further, given the nature of the Common as a heritage resource, given the scale and nature of Fort Wynyard (a provincial heritage site) and given the scale, grain and texture of the immediate environs, the size of the proposed stadium and, therefore, its impact, is excessive."

But, states Jarvis's affidavit, this negative assessment was not captured in the final EIA report.

Neither the director of the provincial Environment and Planning Department, who issued the initial positive Record of Decision (RoD) approving the stadium, nor MEC Tasneem Essop, who subsequently issued a revised RoD after dismissing appeals against that initial decision, appeared to have had the opportunity to view the Heritage Committee's minutes, the affidavit states.

"They also did not have the benefit of a proper summary thereof."

Noting that both the heritage impact assessment report and comments by the heritage committee are based on a 40m-high stadium, the affidavit adds: "One can only assume that BELCom's assessment would have been even more negative had the true height of (currently) 48m been disclosed to BELCom."

The affidavit states that the EIA was based on a stadium height of between 40m and 42m, but that both sets of approvals - by the provincial department and by Essop - authorise a height of up to 50m above natural ground level, which is, in turn, 13m above mean sea-level.

"The director's and the minister's decision (sic) thus effectively authorises a stadium nearly 20% higher than that upon which the EIA and supporting studies were premised.

"It is difficult to resist the conclusion that, in this vitally important respect, the decisions were not rationally connected to the information placed before the respective decision-maker."

The affidavit also argues that other material information relevant to Essop's decision was not placed before her, including the issue of noise pollution from the stadium.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on April 4, 2007

Mo Rush

April 5th, 2007, 01:16 PM

oh dear

Juanl

April 5th, 2007, 01:20 PM

Cape council determined to see stadium built
Melanie Gosling
April 05 2007 at 04:35AM

The city of Cape Town is to contest the urgent application in the Cape High Court to halt the building of the 2010 stadium on Green Point Common and has said it is to continue work on the site.

Spokesperson Pieter Cronje said on Wednesday that the court application was for the reviewing and setting aside of statutory processes undertaken by the city and province that had led to the decision to build the stadium on the common, but it was not an interdict to stop work on the stadium.

"So we will continue the programme to meet the deadline," Cronje said.

The city believed the statutory processes and public participation had been thorough.

The urgent application by the Cape Environmental Protection Association (CEPA) submits, however, that many of the processes failed to comply with the law, that potential impacts of building the stadium were ignored, specialist studies were not included in the report presented to province for a decision and the public was deceived about the stadium's financially viability after 2010.

According to papers, the heritage authorities had rejected the plans for the stadium on the common. Their heritage impact report said the "scale of the proposed stadium is too great: it is too tall... with a very large footprint, and it is too bulky".

Given the nature of the common as a heritage resource and the massive scale of the stadium, "its impact is excessive".

But this view was not incorporated into the final environmental impact assessment, so when the province made its decision, it did so without the benefit of this information.

An acoustic assessment had found that in the absence of design information, "no noise calculations could be conducted". There was no reference to this in the final report.

The consultant who had found that existing sewerage infrastructure would be adequate for the stadium, had given "no rational basis" for this conclusion. Faecal pollution from the Green Point pipeline regularly exceeded permitted levels, and seawater in the area was polluted with faecal matter.

It was "difficult to see upon what rational basis it could be concluded that the sewerage infrastructure was adequate for the purposes of a 68 000-seat stadium". In accepting this finding, the provincial authorities had failed to ensure that the environmental impact report was not compromised by "political pressure by the city" to finish the EIA quickly.

A study by the city had misrepresented the financial viability of the stadium after 2010. It had used the premise that a private operator, and not the city, would run the stadium, and that the profits would go to the private operator, who would lease the stadium at no cost or a nominal fee.

But the information given to the public made no mention of an operator, and anyone would have assumed this money would accrue to the city.

The city has since commissioned a review of this study.

"Apparently, accepting that the stadium will be non-viable as a sporting facility, the city has investigated full commercialisation, including a casino and hotel." If this were true, it "bodes very ill for the common".

CharlieP

April 5th, 2007, 01:44 PM

ENGLAND to use Cape Town as World Cup Base

There's a well-known saying I can't quite remember. It's to do with carts, horses and their relative positions...

Mouille_Point_Guy

April 5th, 2007, 01:45 PM

OOOOOOOOOOOppppppsss

One of my earliest points in this discussion was where would 65 000 people urinate, given the poor sanitation facilities we have already in the Mouille Point Area . Now I understand the diagrams referring to the granger bay prominade ( a pavement, a small car park and small sand with rocks). Now we know - they will go urinate in the sea and that is why it is on the diagram as a focal point, tho its a good 20 minute dash from the stadium to the beach to take a leak during the game. I think the realities of how the decision to place the stadium was reached , and it doesnt include the word planning.

Mo Rush

April 5th, 2007, 01:47 PM

Mouille_Point_Guy

April 5th, 2007, 02:24 PM

Although my last posting was tongue in cheek , the relaity is the EIA is flawed. New realities are becoming visisble, the Heritage organisations disapproval, inadequate sewerage and noise pollution are only a few begining to surface.

And these are health and safety issues, sewerage goes into the sea due to problems of the local processing plant currently .

Noise polution - not even considered in the EIA

And Mo, you stated about financial viability, now appears the citys analysis was incorrect and need another one. I too will not support a casino and do not recall the rezoning of the area to allow for a casino.

I have always maintained my disagreement with the Grren Point site was based on planning, a lot of this information had not been widely publicised, yet now as they begin building the stadiums the realities of infrastructure issues with this location are being highlighted.

Cape Town has been let down, they deserve better of the government. We need a real solution to our requirement for a stadium, and sadly I dont think what we have been given is an adequate nor appropriate solution that our need.

Mo Rush

April 5th, 2007, 04:14 PM

Mouille_Point_Guy

April 5th, 2007, 04:57 PM

Mo Rush

April 5th, 2007, 06:58 PM

Mo - how do you perform accoustic testing without a final design ???? Even the report admits that. Not to mention wind tunnel testing ... The Cape has high winds and a structure that size is going to have serious wind pattern changes ...

Still need to know how to handle the sewerage and how the Heritage report and decision was ignored.

Your comment said "noise pollution not considered", It certainly was considered.
The report does make it clear that the final design was not available, which is not new to an EIA, especially in complex projects where many assumptions need to be made.

Whether the heritage report was ignored or simply not found to be conclusive enough to include in the final report are two different things. I am no expert when it comes to EIA's, if enviropartnership can prove their independence from the city, and can confirm or prove that their decisions were not rushed or influence by city members then the problem or flaws lie with enviropartnership and all their previous projects need to be investigated. The heritage report was made publicaly available and was left open for comment, the city cannot take responsibility if a reputable organization chose not to include the heritage recommendation in the final EIA report. However if the city played a role in this , then they need to answer for that.

If the CEPA are raising points that the city placed pressure on enviropartnershup and somehow forced them to reach an outcome which favoured the city then all corruption, if any, needs to be exposed. However considering Zille's investigation into all tenders awarded by the downright corrupt previous city gvt i.e. the ANC, I doubt that she herself would involve herself in corruption relating to a process which was so critical.

There certainly will need to be some line drawn which distinguishes the city from enviropartnership s.t that the relevant parties are held responsible.
As far as I know the city commissioned the Alternative site study, and were involved with that along with an outside and independent consultant. So in that regard they face questions relating to the validity of their outcomes and methods of investigation.

We just need to be sure who we are pointing fingers at. If the CEPA intend to criticize or question the credibility of enviropartnership then they would need access to all their previous reports or EIA's and find similar flaws. Enviropartnership I believe did the best with what they were given, if a second noise pollution test needs to be done then so be it. However, R700 million will be spent simply on ensuring the roof is a "double layer" as per the EIA recommendation and that the stadium facade reduce noise as much as possible, which is present in the city's decision to use ETFE membrane on the facade as well. These design enhancements are taken direcly from the noise pollution recommendations at the end of Annexure 10.

Juanl

April 5th, 2007, 09:44 PM

Why don't you two meet up somewhere and discuss this and bring us the results? Clearly you're both from Cape Town sooo....

Mo Rush

April 5th, 2007, 11:28 PM

Why don't you two meet up somewhere and discuss this and bring us the results? Clearly you're both from Cape Town sooo....

SSC is a forum. Its where people discuss things.

Mouille_Point_Guy

April 6th, 2007, 09:43 AM

I for one am very grateful that Mo is debating this issue with me, it is what democracy is about and am very happy to continue discussing this issue in this forum.

I am by no means apposed to cape town having a new stadium, nor the world cup. My complaint is that we deserve better than government gives us. We pay taxes yet we do not receive a world class service.

For example, who could approve ahtlone, a 40 000 seater stadium, with all the costs incurred, when it didnt meet FIFA requirements. That is almost bordering on criminal misuse of public funds - refer do we need two 40 000 seat stadiums.

I fail to see how a new stadium could not include the athletics track, another example of poor planning, if we are going to build a stadium lets not cut corners, costs or even the legal requirements. Cape Town needs a proper stadium for its citizens, which allows for residents needs and to encourage overseas events not some rushed half baked stadium in a location unsuitable for this purpose. FIFA is not a legal requirement in South Africa, it has no legal basis to prescribe how South African tax payers money should be spent nor does it have the right at the late stage in the game to say - build a stadium in Greenpoint because we say so. Had they taken that attitude in Germany I am positive the Germans would have told FIFA where to go, however somehow we must bend to FIFAs will as we are in africa.

I dont understand how people who voice legitimate concerns about how the public have been mislead, about how improper procedures have been followed, are painted with the brush that we are about to have the world cup taken from Cape Town or South Africa. When we were awarded the CUP no mention was ever made of Green Point, FIFA changed the rules not South Africa. Green Point wasnt even an option presented to FIFA, FIFA said they wanted it here. Yet People somehow forget the facts.

The politicians started this nonsense about how it was Green Point or nothing, the politicans and FIFA had years to sort out stadiums and at a second to midnight they say Greenpoint. So government bends over backwards, bending rules to keep some other non governmental organisation happy. Yet this is all twisted to say that some concerned tax payers are now to blame for pointing out irregularities in the whole process.

So far Mo is one of very few people who is prepared to discuss this issue and I am am very grateful to him / her for this fact. Mo has very relevant opinions and facts to share and I am very appreciative. I do not have the exclusive ownership on being correct in my views nor opinions and I welcome each and every post Mo provides. This is how a democracy is supposed to work, yet I see less and less evidence of this concept in how our government has handled and manipulated the facts on this issue.

I have worked on multi billion rand projects and government projects, I have seen first hand how rushed decisions have major implications later on. I have engineering expertise and understand many of the processes that are involved. I also fail to see how common wisdom of following a sequential set of steps in such projects, an excepted industry and international standard, can be brushed under the carpet, in order to run the process in parallel, introducing all sorts of dangers which only now have been highlighted.

I welcome anyones opinion, humour included, as this is how a society is supposed to function. Thank you Mo for the time you have taken to post often lengthy detailed responses, I for one do read, consider and value your contribution.

dysan1

April 6th, 2007, 04:45 PM

Mouille point guy....Welcome

for as long as i can remember i have been the lone critic of this stadium in the south african forum. Not because i dont want a new stadium in ct or that i want to damage the wc, but because i, like you, feel that greenpoint is a pathetic place for a new stadium. I have always stated that i really felt sorry for the people in greenpoint, but more specifically mouille point, due to the fact that this new stadium will be so damn imposing on the area and hence will totally alter the character of the area, in my opinion for the worse. yes there will be a big park which is great but that is icing that could occur without the stadium.

Besides this, with an uncomplete foreshore freeway, getting there will be near impossible, for traffic in that area is already harrowing. Mo believes that transport and people walking will alleviate this. but then explain how people will walk on roads, disrupting traffic and their own safety (considering many will be way over the limit. And there are only 2 ways from the cbd thru to bantry bay and camps...will they block these roads off on match days? And yes, it is not a short walk from there to town! seems a planning disaster.

With all the new problems surfacing, one wonders who was trying to fool who. Just for comparisson. The Durban stadium has been in the planning stages for 5 years as part of the kings park sports precinct. It has a clearly defined position in the cities growth strategy focussed on sport. In cape town this stadium is a recent element that was not actively campaigned for by the city, but throw at them. They never planned for a new stadium over the last few years, with major development taking place in the greenpoint vicinity and cbd. Hence a stadium there now will be rushed at best, hardly integrated into major city plans and in no defined sporting district.

This haste is what has lead to stupid decisions being made and passed. Decisions like the stadium not being able to ever have an athletics track, no all weather facility to help during the cape winters and hence only limited exhibition venue capability.

I want this world cup to be a success for my south africa, and cape town is a vital cog in that success. having said that, this stadium is not vital to the world cups success, newlands could quite happily be used.

Legal process needs to be followed now and i hope the best outcome for the city takes place. I hardly think the loss of this stadium will have any effect on the V&A for it has gone from strength to strength without it up to now, and the international investors in it were hardly thinking of a nearby stadium being crucial to their plans. In my opinion the stadium could impede on their plans.

We have to be patient now and just see what the courts bring. Mouille point guy...thanx for joining the forum for it is very good to hear from someone that will be living on top of this stadium and not just people that will ocassionally visit

Mo Rush

April 6th, 2007, 07:07 PM

http://www.greenpointstadium2010.co.za/

The Green Point Stadium Consultant team has established this website in order to capture relevant information within the Construction Industry.

The Tender Documents for the construction of the Green Point Stadium has a number of provisional sums for specialised items and sub-contracts. Throughout the construction period there will be several Tenders for these provisional sums. These Tenders will be conducted by invitation only.

Who should register?

If your company can deliver the necessary service required it will be of great benefit to you to register on this site so that we are properly informed.

Why register?

The Green Point Stadium Consultant team together with the chosen main contractor will be perusing the registered entries on this site prior to the issuing of Invitations to Tender.

Our consultants and the main contractor need to be aware of your capacity, availability and willingness to complete the sub-contract.

We hereby call on all interested parties to register your business on this website. Once the closing date for registering a particular trade or material has lapsed, unfortunately no further entries can be accepted.

Mouille_Point_Guy

April 6th, 2007, 10:59 PM

Mouille_Point_Guy

April 8th, 2007, 08:58 AM

From

Illegal waiters rock the Mother City

08 April 2007
Andrew Donaldson: Eish!

Sunday Times

STILL in the Mother City, the protracted row over the proposed Green Point Stadium deepened on Tuesday with the launch of a High Court action by the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association to stop this monstrous project.

In a Cape Times opinion piece — apparently published to neatly dovetail with the association’s legal challenge — Professor Jan Glazewski, of the Institute of Marine and Environmental Law at the University of Cape Town, drew readers’ attention to the size of the stadium, arguing that its scale “is totally inappropriate in the context of the gentle slopes of Signal Hill ”.

As much as I agree with him, I can’t help feeling that Glazewski is wasting his time appealing to the aesthetic sensibilities of those who support the flinging up of this gigantic construction for the simple reason that they have no sensibilities, aesthetic or otherwise.

The fynbos argument doesn’t wash with the Fifa people and their fat-arsed acolytes in SA football. And it’s not about Green Point, either, but rather the long and cold green in their bank accounts at the end of the day.

It’s widely accepted here that Cape Town wants a semi-final in 2010. But the city’s first choice for a site for the stadium was Newlands. This was wisely later changed to Athlone, a former “apartheid” township badly in need of development investment.

Fifa thought otherwise, with one official suggesting that “billions of viewers don’t want to see shacks and poverty on this scale”.

This is preposterous for a body claiming to represent a game enjoyed mostly by the world’s poorest people, a great many of whom live in shacks and poverty on a scale that is probably just as bad, if not worse than anything the Flats has to offer.

It is disgraceful that a city should be dictated to by such insensitive and boorish bureaucrats — but not as disgraceful or as frightening as the spectacle of the game’s local administrators and their political chums just rolling over and taking it.

Mouille_Point_Guy

April 8th, 2007, 04:44 PM

http://www.gamesbids.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3819&st=60

CAR FREE - how many parking bays in the stadium at greenpoint ???

CAPE TOWN
SA aims for 'greenest' World Cup

Mon, 28 Aug 2006

Learning from previous hosts Germany, South Africa had a wonderful opportunity to ensure that the 2010 Soccer World Cup conformed to the principles of sustainable development, a top United Nations official said on Monday.

"If this is an issue that is considered only of interest to the environmentalists in the corner, then basically most of South Africa will not really pay much attention to it... You have to look at multiple benefits, and I think that is the key to making a green world cup not just a four weeks fireworks event... but to use the four years you that you now have to trigger the imagination of the nation," said Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Steiner was speaking at the opening day of Africa's first hosting of the Global Environment Facility in Cape Town.

The GEF is a partnership to protect the global environment and promote sustainable development.

$3bn cash injection

On Monday it was announced that the fund had been replenished to the tune of $3.13-billion.

Some of this money will be used to boost South Africa's public transport in the run-up to the 2010 world cup, a project endorsed by football icons Ronaldo of Brazil and Zinedine Zidane of France.

"So we are delighted that an initiative is underway to carry this green trophy forward in South Africa. We hope the project... will play its part in making the next FIFA World Cup healthier, more enjoyable... while acting as a catalyst for the development of 21st century public transport across Africa and the developing world," they said in a joint statement distributed at the conference.

Steiner said South Africa had the time to plan properly, mentioning the higher than expected uptake of the notion of using public transport in Germany.

"If you plan ahead you can make using public transport not a sacrifice, but in fact an advantage to getting to the world cup. So I think, one of the things is that South Africa has the time to plan ahead so that it doesn't have to be an act of environmental faith that you use the public transport system. It simply is the most convenient and most practical way of getting there," he said.

Lessons to be learnt

Lessons could also be learnt about waste management, from the banal paper cups to larger items, as well as the role of designated soccer stadia to prevent them from becoming redundant during weekdays.

Speaking about a heightened "consciousness", Steiner said South Africa could multiply the use of enormous investments, with a particular emphasis on the role the private sector and civil society could play.

Tumi Makgabo, spokesperson for the country's 2010 Soccer World Cup, said the clear message was ensuring the country had an environmental plan to implement.

"It is an opportunity for us to take it seriously and to get started," Makgabo said.

"In terms of the local organising committee environmental friendliness is obviously something that is key, and it is something we are discussing," she said.

Earlier, Monique Barbut, newly elected chief executive of the GEF, confirmed that some $11-million was earmarked for transport projects in South Africa.

But she emphasised nothing had been finalised.

Among mooted projects were those demonstrating alternative fuels such and technologies such as bio-diesel, bio-ethanol and fuel cells.

"During the event we would want to make sure that all stadia precincts are car-free, at least up to a radius of two kilometres minimum. We will be promoting walking, cycling to and from the stadia," said Martin Mokonyama, deputy director-general of transport.

Sapa

Mo Rush

April 9th, 2007, 02:00 PM

Green Point Stadium: construction continues

By Anel Powell

The partial demolition of Green Point Stadium is going ahead, despite the threat of legal action by the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association.

Sean Flanagan, group executive director of Murray & Roberts, who with WBHO (Pty) has the R2,85-billion contract to build the new stadium, said on Sunday that work on the site was "quite advanced".

He said the earthworks on the Metropolitan Golf Course, where the new 68 000-seat stadium will be built, was "going well" and almost done. This included excavations and the diversion of bulk services from the area.

'We are very happy with the work that is being done'
Turf has been removed from the golf course, and some of the grass will be replanted in city parks.

"The next thing is the foundations. We are advancing and we are very happy with the work that is being done." The partial demolition of the existing stadium had already begun.

Flanagan said the contract for the complete demolition of the stadium was still being finalised. "The whole stadium will go ultimately. But for now, we are keeping parts of it for offices (for sub-contractors)."

Cronje said part of the existing stadium would be used as a construction yard while the new stadium was being built.

The contractors have an October 2009 construction deadline to meet, according to Fifa requirements.

'Future of the stadium had yet to be decided in court'
But the latest threat of legal action, this time by a group of environmentalists, could mean a costly delay for the City of Cape Town.

The association is asking the court to set aside decisions by the city and provincial government, which it claims were pushed through without adequate public participation to meet Fifa's requirements.

They have applied for a Cape High Court interdict to halt construction of the semifinal venue.

Pieter Cronje, spokesperson for 2010, said last week that construction on the site would continue even though the future of the stadium had yet to be decided in court.

The city's legal team is this weekend working through the two files of legal documents served by the environmental group.

Mo Rush

April 9th, 2007, 06:43 PM

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Mo Rush

April 9th, 2007, 10:57 PM

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Good memories:

U2, Metallica and 466-64,Goo Goo Dolls & Lenny Kravitz, Michael Jackson, Athleics world cup, interschool race days, cape minstrel carnivals, cycle tour.
For a crap piece of metal, it really played a vital role.

Mo Rush

April 10th, 2007, 10:53 AM

Status: Basic earthwork complete, Stadium demolishing almost complete, bulk services something something complete. A good amount of work in a week.

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Juanl

April 10th, 2007, 11:10 AM

Cape stadium could be used for many things

Ben Trovato
April 10 2007 at 02:14AM

Jesus had a better Easter than me. And that's all I am prepared to say right now. I don't want to make Brenda angrier than she already is. So let's stick with something safe. Like soccer.

There are those who describe the planned 2010 stadium as a "monstrous carbuncle" on the face of Cape Town, and yet no one seems to give a damn about the fact that we have a dirty great rock in the middle of the city that sits there blocking everyone's view day in and day out.

Let's get our priorities straight. Table Mountain is by far the mother of all monstrous carbuncles and we should get rid of it before we even start worrying about soccer stadiums.

Everyone who doesn't stand to make a ton of money out of the World Cup is complaining bitterly that the stadium is going to become a white elephant. This is absolute nonsense. Apart from the fact that stadiums can't turn into elephants, history has shown us that there are many uses for stadiums that have served their purpose. All it takes is a little creative thought. And nobody was more creative than the Romans.

All it takes is a little creative thought
The Colosseum was originally designed to host chariot races but the sport died out when the internal combustion engine was invented. Instead of tearing the structure down, the Romans rounded up the Christians, brought in a few lions, and suddenly the stands were packed again.

Since our stadium is going to be in Green Point, an area noticeably lacking in Christians, it might be an idea to round up the sexual deviants and toss them to packs of homophobic artisans from the northern suburbs. There will be enough hot dogs, popcorn and spread-betting for everyone.

In some South American countries, soccer lost its popular appeal during the 1980s when most of the fans and all the players except a goalkeeper from Paraguay disappeared, only to turn up in unmarked graves some years later. Not the kind of people to give up easily, the dictators who ran these countries used the empty stadiums as internment camps.

We tolerate our political dissidents, for now, anyway, but there are plenty of street people who would be quite happy to camp out in the Green Point stadium once the final whistle has blown and everyone's gone back to where they came from. The civil service could simultaneously hold job interviews on the field. And once the stadium was full, all exits would be sealed.

That's the homeless problem and the unemployment problem solved in one go.

Alternatively, team-building exercises could be held inside the abandoned stadium on Saturday afternoons. We could have employees of the South African Revenue Service armed with paintball guns versus taxpayers armed with AK-47s. I'm putting my name on that list right now.

Uses for a useless stadium aside, I have to admit that I am an ardent supporter of police commissioner Jackie Selebi's suggestion that prostitution, drinking in the streets, wanton littering, insider trading, organ trafficking and bank robberies should be legalised for the duration of the World Cup.

Our metro cops arrest people for walking their dogs on the beach without a leash. My armpits get wet when I think what they might do when they come across a Basque separatist on his knees snorting a line of roughly cut coke off the bald pate of an Irish skinhead passed out on top of a heavily stoned Zimbabwean hooker on the pavement outside the News Caf?.

Comrade Selebi must order his men to take leave during the World Cup. There shouldn't be a single cop on the streets. Soccer fans don't need policing. They need alcohol, drugs and women.

And we shouldn't be ashamed to let the world know that we have all three in splendid abundance. The whole party is, after all, about money. Given the unavoidable shame of revealing to the world that we have a pile of rocks in the middle of our city, we need to show that we are right up there with the best of the West when it comes to rampant profligacy.

And at a very desirable exchange rate, to boot. Twelve rand to the Eurotrash looks like a pretty good deal in my book.

A lot of terrible things are said about the demigods who operate under the nom de guerre of Fifa, but they were absolutely right when they turned down Athlone as a venue on the grounds that nobody wants to risk getting ambushed, hijacked or mugged on their way to the stadium, let alone settle their flabby white bums on their comfy chinchilla-coated sofas in civilised cities like Munich and Zurich only for a maverick cameraman to pan across, at halftime, to the locals stabbing, shooting and raping each other on the street outside the stadium.

Even though the cheapest drugs, friendliest prostitutes and best shebeens can be found on the Cape Flats, Fifa know that the fans would never ever swop their modified Cortinas and their home-baked amphetamines for anything the sponsors were offering. Budweiser? Please. Not even as a tik chaser.

And now a white-hooded cabal of jackbooted golf-playing municipal bylaw-hugging aesthetes want to invoke the law to prevent the monstrous carbuncle from being built. These people have to be stopped, even if it means paying off every judge in the High Court.

Send me your signed blank cheques and I will make sure that the right people make the right decisions.

Juanl

April 10th, 2007, 06:15 PM

Rail-airport link may not happen - reports
Sipokazi Maposa
April 10 2007 at 02:50PM

The proposed railway link between Cape Town and the airport may not be completed in time for the Fifa 2010 World Cup.

A cloud of uncertainty hangs over the project after local transport authorities gave conflicting statements on the progress of the project.

While the Metrorail says the project will be ready for the soccer extravaganza, some transport authorities are not so sure.

It is still not clear when the project will start or who is to provide the bulk funding for it.

Project will be ready for the soccer extravaganza
Last year, the city announced plans to build a direct link using a short new link from the airport to join the existing rail network to the city centre. It also considered building an elevated light rail system along the N1.

The 4.5km extension, which was reportedly estimated to cost in the region of R305-million, was part of a plan to reduce congestion and delays on the road network as well as ease the airport's parking nightmare.

But last week the city and the province distanced themselves from the project, saying they merely supported it and that it was being spearheaded by Metrorail. They could not confirm whether they would fund the project.

Metrorail told the Cape Argus that it was still in consultations about the project and was not sure when construction would start or where the funding for the project would come from.

The head of Metrorail, Steve Ngobeni, was hesitant to comment on the costs or how to fund the project.

Lots of complications could delay the project
He remained confident, however, that the project was "on track" and would be completed before 2010.

"Everything will go as planned. The project will still go on, it's just a matter of when. We are still busy with consultation to give us an idea on how to implement it. There are a number of factors to consider - we need to look at issues such as costs, the impact this will have on the rolling stock, scheduling and the staffing. But everything should be ready for 2010," he said.

Ngobeni said Metrorail was also negotiating with spheres of government, including the city and the province, on funding issues.

He said time frames would become clear in a few weeks when the consultation process was completed.

The province's 2010 project manager, Denis Lillie, said though the project would still go through, it was "unlikely" to be finished before the World Cup.

"Looking at the amount of work that still needs to be done, it is possible that we won't get it ready for 2010. The project will still go on and it would be fantastic if we could accelerate it for the World Cup, but in all likelihood it's going beyond 2010.

"There are lots of complications that are being looked at which could delay the project. One of those is the rezoning issue - the land which the rail network will have to go over will have to be rezoned."

Lillie said the only guaranteed rapid movement of passengers from the airport to the city centre was by road.

"In terms of passenger movement, we've done an analysis and we believe we can still move passengers rapidly by road," he said.

He couldn't confirm whether there was any provincial funding towards the project. "The principle is for the private sector to fund it and own the licensing," he said.

The city's director of transport, Maddie Mazaza, said the city was awaiting a feasibility study from Metrorail, and would only decide how much to spend on the project once the study was done and all spheres of government agreed on the rail link.

Commenting on its readiness for 2010, she said: "I don't know - it might happen, it might not."

The president of the Cape Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Janine Myburgh, said it would be "sad news" if the rail link project failed as that would lead to more congestion on roads, especially on the N2.

Mo Rush

April 10th, 2007, 07:40 PM

Upgrading of city's transport infrastructure on track for World Cup

By Linsday Dentlinger

The city's transport department says it is well on track to meet its goals for upgrading transport infrastructure and key routes before the 2010 World Cup and beyond.

Several recent high-level intergovernmental meetings will culminate in the finalisation of transport-related plans and agreements by the end of next month.

City transport director Maddie Mazaza told the city's portfolio committee on transport, roads and stormwater last week that the city and provincial government were still aligning their transport plans so that there would be clarity on who was implementing and co-ordinating the programmes and the funding.

The city has been grant-ed R766 million from the National Treasury for im-proving the city's major public transport routes over the next three years.

Mazaza said most of the projects were either in their planning or implementation phases and that the city was still looking at whether it might be necessary to add some projects.

But she told the Cape Argus that she was satisfied that in recent months plans to upgrade the city's transport infrastructure were moving at a pace unprecedented over the past ten years.

Executive director for transport, roads and stormwater, Eddie Chinnappen, told the committee the present phase of construction work on the N2 would end in June, when dedicated bus lanes running from Borcherd's Quarry to the Liesbeek Parkway off-ramp would come into effect.

More work on the N2 could be expected on the Hospital Bend portion next year to create dedicated lanes in and out of the city centre.

The committee was informed that construction to alleviate congestion on the Koeberg interchange would start next January.

Mazaza said the first of projects directly linked to the building of the 2010 Green Point stadium, in Granger Bay would start very soon.

The aim is to link the V&A Waterfront directly to Somerset Road in Green Point.

"We are worried about our spectators and how they move around during the event," she told the committee.

She said there were several smaller projects including pedestrian walkways directly linked to 2010, which would be accomplished in a short space of time.

Mazaza also pointed out that work on the Symphony Way project was going well.

She said it was critical that new bus lanes on the N2 were properly monitored by law enforcement agencies and that 17 CCTV cameras would be installed along the route to do so.

The city has yet to sign the final intergovernmental transport agreement with the provincial and national governments, although a draft was approved by the council in January.

Mazaza said the city was awaiting a final legal opinion.

The council should also be presented at the end of next month with a full public transport implementation plan indicating all work streams, budgets and timelines.
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Published on the web by Cape Argus on April 10, 2007.

Mo Rush

April 10th, 2007, 08:15 PM

allAfrica.com

Stadium Builders Plough On Regardless

Cape Argus (Cape Town)
NEWS
April 10, 2007
Posted to the web April 10, 2007

By Matt Medved
Cape Town

Demolition and excavation efforts at the Green Point Stadium site continued "full throttle" over the Easter holiday weekend, despite the threat of legal action by the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association (CEPA).

Excavators were digging through the rubble of the old stadium and articulated dump trucks were hauling payloads of topsoil on the Green Point Common when the Cape Argus visited the site yesterday.

Although an application to work on Good Friday was turned down by the city out of respect for the religious holiday, work continued on Saturday and yesterday.

"Right now we are still chasing that October 2009 deadline," said Pieter Cronje, spokesman for City 2010.

"It's the early days of the process but we are moving full speed ahead."

Technical project director David Hugo said he had applied for permission to work on Good Friday but the query was rejected by the city "because of the importance of the religious holiday".

The primary focus of the current work is the excavation of the Metropolitan golf course, where the new 68 000-seat stadium will be built, as well as the diversion of bulk services to the new site. Such services include a storm drain and a larger water main for the common.

Turf from the golf course has also been removed and sold to a construction contractor.

Additionally, the partial demolition of the old Green Point stadium has started. While the contract for the complete demolition was still being finalised, a portion of the existing structure will be used as a construction yard with offices for sub-contractors and engineers on site.

"We are demolishing approximately three quarters of the stadium under an agreement with the Western Cape province," Hugo said.

"We have commenced stripping off the roof sheeting and façade of the building."

The next stage will be the casting of concrete for the stadium foundations. Hugo said that the city had also embarked on a public process to agree on spatial limits for the common as well as to establish an athletics facility there.

"At the moment, the full complement of workers is not on site," Cronje said. "Once they start the construction proper, the numbers will increase."

The construction workers work shifts from 6.30am until 5.30pm, six to seven days a week.

The work has progressed unfettered by the urgent application to the High Court that the CEPA submitted last week, to halt the building process and return the Common to its state prior to March 26, when the construction officially began.

The CEPA has asked the court to declare as unlawful the environmental record of decision (ROD) issued by the provincial Environmental Department in October, which grants approval for the stadium to be built on the Green Point Common, as well as the revised ROD by environmental MEC Tasneem Essop in January, when she dismissed appeals against the choice of site.

Robert MacDonald, spokesman for Cape Town mayor Helen Zille, said Zille would "vigorously defend the court action".

Cronje said that the city's lawyers were still studying the "very bulky" papers they had been served and that it was too early to tell what their course of action would be.

"One is never flippant about any legal challenge but we feel that we will oppose this action in court," said Cronje.

"The construction must go on; it's not just about the stadium, it's also about all the relevant investments. We also believe that the timing of the action is unproductive because we have gone through the statutory processes over many months with public participation and appeal.

"The stadium is not a random development, but part of the development in the surrounding Waterfront and central business district and we believe it will provide a cash injection to give the Green Point Common a facelift as a new sports and recreation precinct."

CEPA chairman Arthur Wienburg was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Copyright © 2007 Cape Argus. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
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Mo Rush

April 12th, 2007, 11:58 AM

Stadium lease up for grabs

By Lindsay Dentlinger

The City of Cape Town has called for proposals for an operator of the 2010 World Cup Stadium and the urban park next to it.

In spite of legal action challenging the building of the stadium, advertisements were placed in local and national newspapers at the weekend for a 30-year lease on the stadium after 2010.

Tenderer's have until May 10 to submit their proposals.

'We want people to come up with ideas. We don't want to be too prescriptive'
Bidders will have to support their proposal with a viable and achievable business plan as well as an operational model.

The mayoral committee member for finance, Ian Neilson, said on Tuesday that the city would not stipulate the type of business it would allow at the stadium and that proposals would be considered with a "completely open mind".

"People might have ideas we have not thought about. But we will have to be persuaded that it is a workable proposal and given strong assurances that it is financially viable in the medium to long term."

Investec has already guaranteed the city R185-billion for the operating lease in lieu of a shortfall in the budget to build the R2,85-billion stadium, should the tender process not yield suitable alternatives.

Investec has put the value of the tender at a present-day value of R260-million, once costs of managing the stadium and the urban park have been deducted.

Neilson said the city anticipated good proposals if informal approaches made to the city to date were anything to go by, but that they would have to be in line with the environmental Record of Decision of the provincial department of environment, Planning and Economic Development.

Over the past month the city has already been approached by several potential operators testing the waters for developments ranging from a casino to a hotel and shopping complex.

Neilson believes that the location of the new stadium, at a new entrance to the Waterfront via Granger Bay Boulevard, makes it even more attractive to investors.

"We want people to come up with ideas. We don't want to be too prescriptive. The urban park is a major responsibility and people have to demonstrate the skill to turn it into a success," he said.

Neilson ruled out the possibility of the city council running the stadium post-2010, saying the council preferred it to be run according to business principles, as this would give greater guarantees of success.

The top tier of seating at the stadium will be removed after the World Cup, creating more space for commercial use and reducing the stadium capacity from 68 000 to 55 000 seats.

Neilson said the zoning of the common for community use would have a bearing on the consideration council would give to the proposals.

If the successful proposal warranted another rezoning process, this would require public comment.

Proposals will follow the city's normal tender procedures, but Neilson said there would be some level of political decision-making involved in determining the type of development that would be allowed at Green Point Stadium.

The successful tenderer would also have to commit to running the urban park which, according to the city's call for proposals, will become "the newest icon and landmark in the City's array of unique assets".

The city says the stadium will be designed to accommodate football, rugby, concerts and events.

Neilson said the city wanted to appoint a post-2010 operator as soon as possible so that the stadium design could take their requirements into consideration.

* This article was originally published on page 11 of The Cape Argus on April 11, 2007

The Argus

Published on the Web by IOL on 2007-04-11 11:34:00
© Independent Online 2005. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains.

Mo Rush

April 13th, 2007, 02:44 PM

Concern over access to 2010 fields

By Lee-Shay Collison and Deepa Seetharaman

Residents who attended a public meeting last night said that access to sporting facilities was their main concern regarding the redevelopment of Green Point Common ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Altius United Cricket Club at Green Point Common questioned whether there would be enough sports fields for the various sporting clubs which made use of the Common.

"There weren't enough fields (on the Common). We initially had four fields and now we are losing three. With a growing junior section we can't survive on one field," claimed Qarniet Armien, secretary for the cricket club.

This meeting, which was held at Woodstock Town Hall last night, was part of a series of public meetings to give citizens a chance to comment on plans for the development of the Green Point Urban Park public space around the 2010 stadium.

The meeting, chaired by 2010 technical director Dave Hugo, was attended by about 50 people and they were satisfied with the plans shown to them. But some were concerned about access to sharing of facilities while others wanted to know if some fields would be retained for use by school children.

Hugo pointed out that at the end of construction there would be a total of 11 sports fields, including the old cricket oval, and at least two athletics tracks.

It was not clear whether the old stadium would be retained as an athletics track, said Hugo.

The record of the meetings will be submitted to the Provincial MEC of the Environment, Planning AND Economic Development by July 6.

Meanwhile, David Polovin, chairperson of the Green Point Common Association, said he was dissatisfied with the large amount of space given to the new golf course in comparison with the smaller public space of the park as "there are not many golfers in Green Point".

But Hugo said the size of the golf course adhered to safety measures and that it was regarded as a tourism asset.

In another development, mayoral committee member for economic development Simon Grindrod has said the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association (Cepa) is playing "Russian roulette" with the city's economy by its bid to halt the stadium.

Delaying construction would lead to higher costs for the city and "seriously jeopardise the tight construction schedule and ultimately sabotage the project".

 Other meetings to be held include Gugulethu Sports Complex (April 19), Lentegeur Civic Centre, Mitchell's Plain (April 23), Muizenberg Civic Centre, (May 3) and Athlone Civic Centre (May 10).

Published on the web by Cape Argus on April 13, 2007.

Mo Rush

April 13th, 2007, 02:50 PM

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Juanl

April 14th, 2007, 04:08 PM

Mo Rush

April 14th, 2007, 04:56 PM

It's amazing what hey can achieve in such short a time. Imagine how far they'd be if they'd started in December. That viewing angle by the way, would be the perfect viewing angle for cameras when twenty ten comes round. That and the one from Table Mountain!

I was very lucky today to get to see some more of the planning that has gone on behind the scenes, you would swear CT was hosting the olympic games! There is this one plan/idea to have the stadium as the new entrance to the waterfront using the new granger bay boulevard.

In such a short time, 80% of the existing stadium has been demolished, most of the stadium site on the golf course has been excavated and is ready for the laying of foundations. This has all taken place over one week!

Enviromental association's urgent interdict on Green Point Stadium fails

By Tando Mfengwana
14 April 2007

Premier Ebrahim Rasool has hailed the failed court bid to stop progress on Green Point Stadium.

The Cape Town Environmental Protection Associations asked the Cape High Court for an urgent interdict against the Stadiums demolition.

The association’s lawyers, city and provincial representatives and Fifa’s local organising committee met a judge in the chambers on Friday afternoon.

In a statement Rasool said he is confident that their planning processes were thorough, and that the association’s case will be refuted in court.

He said the city was well on its way to hosting the semi-final on a new Green Point Stadium in 2010.

Juanl

April 14th, 2007, 08:25 PM

Mo Rush

April 15th, 2007, 12:04 AM

In such a short time, 80% of the existing stadium has been demolished, most of the stadium site on the golf course has been excavated and is ready for the laying of foundations. This has all taken place over one week!

The mind boggles

Why?
The demolishing of the existing stadium site took place at the same time as the earthworks at the golf course site for the new stadium. More work needs to be done before foundations can be laid.

Mo Rush

April 15th, 2007, 12:27 AM

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Golf Course site

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EADGBE

April 15th, 2007, 09:39 AM

Juanl

April 15th, 2007, 12:09 PM

I believe the SOUTH AFRICAN 2010 forum should help you out with that one. Has been updated for quite some time though.

Mo Rush

April 15th, 2007, 12:36 PM

I'm trying to get upto speed on SA's venues for 2010. The website www.southafrica2010.org lists the following information about the 10 venues. Is all of this still up-to-date?

Soccer City (Johannesburg) - Major upgrade 104 000
Ellis Park (Johannesburg) - Minor upgrades 60 000
Greenpoint Stadium (Cape Town) - Specially built ] 70 000
King Senzangakhona Stadium (Durban) - Specially built 80 000
Nelson Mandela Stadium (Port Elizabeth) - Specially built 50 000
Loftus Versveld (Pretoria/Tschwane) - Minor upgrades 45 000
Free State Stadium (Bloemfontein) - Major upgrade 45 000
Royal Bafokeng Stadium (Rustenburg) - Minor upgrade 45 000
Peter Mokaba Stadium (Polokwane) - Major upgrade 40 000
Mbombela Stadium (Nelspruit) - Specially built 30 000

http://www.southafrica.info/cm_pics/10years/1277-0-0-0_379932.jpg
Soccer City (Johannesburg) - Major upgrade 94,700 +
Ellis Park (Johannesburg) - Minor upgrades 60 000
Greenpoint Stadium (Cape Town) - Specially built ] 68 000
King Senzangakhona Stadium (Durban) - Specially built 70 000
Nelson Mandela Stadium (Port Elizabeth) - Specially built 50 000
Loftus Versveld (Pretoria/Tschwane) - Minor upgrades 50 000
Free State Stadium (Bloemfontein) - Major upgrade 46 000
Royal Bafokeng Stadium (Rustenburg) - Minor upgrade 45 000
Peter Mokaba Stadium (Polokwane) - Major upgrade 45 000
Mbombela Stadium (Nelspruit) - Specially built 45 000

Mo Rush

April 15th, 2007, 12:40 PM

Stadium flattened despite court drama

By Melanie Peters

THE OLD Green Point Stadium was a pile of rubble yesterday, despite the Cape Environment Protection Association's (Cepa) determination to pursue a halt to the demolition through the courts.

The organisation brought an urgent application in the Cape High Court on Friday to force the council to stop demolition going ahead this weekend, but failed.

The association's legal team plan to obtain an interdict tomorrow to stop any further demolition work.

The stadium was already about 75% demolished on Friday, and yesterday work crews got stuck in again. By mid-afternoon only a section of the stadium earmarked to be kept was left standing. For the rest, there was just dust and rubble.

When Weekend Argus visited the site, excavators were digging through the rubble and articulated dump trucks were hauling away loads of soil excavated from the foundations of the new 2010 World Cup stadium across Green Point Common.

The site manager said no work would be done today, but yesterday curious bystanders were on hand to watch the last sections of the stadium fall.

The City of Cape Town's 2010 spokesman, Pieter Cronje, said: "The existing structure will be used as a construction yard with offices for sub-contractors and engineers on site. The next step will be to crush the builders' rubble and remove it. This will be followed by the casting of the new stadium's foundations."

Next door on the former Metropolitan golf course, excavation work has been done on 5 000m2, down to a depth of 2.5m.

The primary focus of the current work is the excavation of the golf course, where the new 68 000-seat stadium will be built, as well as the diversion of bulk services to the new site. Such services include a storm drain and a larger water main for the common.

"On Monday we'll wait and see what the basis is for Cepa's court action," said Cronje.

In a statement, Cepa's lawyer Geoff Carter said the application to the Cape High Court was based on the fact that the demolition of the stadium flew in the face of the city's undertaking not to go beyond excavations for the foundations until the court had had an opportunity to hear all the legal challenges to the decision to site the new stadium on the common.

Carter said: "They (Cepa members) remain convinced that, had the people of Cape Town been properly consulted as required by law, the new stadium would not be built on the common which is completely unsuited to a R2.8 billion stadium, especially since the soccer games to be played in Cape Town could be hosted at other stadiums for a fraction of the cost."

But Cronje said that if the association was successful in derailing the 2010 project completely, it would cost the city R500 million in losses in design, professional work and contract awards.

It would also put in jeopardy a further R10bn in investments in infrastructure from all three spheres of government and billions of rands more from the private sector.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on April 15, 2007. © Cape Argus 2007. All rights reserved.

Mo Rush

April 16th, 2007, 08:48 PM

Cape Town to choose stadium operator by end-May

Cape Town to decide on long-term stadium operator

A thirty-year appointment with an preferred operator for the new Green Point stadium and adjacent urban park, in Cape Town, will be announced before the end of May, a City of Cape Town spokesperson told Engineering News Online on Monday.

The City of Cape Town is developing a world-class mulitpurpose stadium facility and sporting precinct (urban park) to accommodate football, rugby, concerts and events.

The Green Point stadium, which is scheduled to host 2010 soccer World Cup matches, including semifinals, has been fraught with controversy, the latest being a high court application by the Cape Environmental Protection Association opposing the demolition of the existing stadium at Green Point to make way for the construction of the new 68 000-seater stadium.

In a telephonic interview on Monday, City of Cape Town’s Danie Malan explained that, while the outer design parameters for the stadium had already been determined, the operator would be involved in the detailed design.

The operator, which will be involved in design input, the site development plan of the urban park and will assist the city with new ideas in managing the new leases, will also be given an opportunity to submit proposals for use of space in the stadium, such as a fitness club or restaurants.

As a result, the appointment of the operator would be made well in advance of stadium completion to avoid the need for last-minute changes.

In response to a question on project value, Malan was uncertain, saying “we don’t know what to expect”, although bidders can commence bidding from R1-million upwards.

He added that the city was hoping to attract international interest.

Mo Rush

April 16th, 2007, 08:51 PM

Cape Town stadium 'under no threat'
Posted on 16 April 2007 - 16:48

The construction of a 2010 World Cup stadium in Cape Town is under no threat and chief executive Danny Jordaan is confident that work will be completed on time despite a pending legal wrangle by an environmental group.

Speaking to the media at Safa House after Monday’s Host Cities meeting, Jordaan said stadium construction was a big issues and that the Local Organising Committee would meet all the deadlines in this respect.

"As far as timelines are concerned, we are on track notwithstanding all the legal challenges," said Jordaan.

Such "legal challenges" emanated from Durban, a matter that was settled and construction is now well underway. There was another such challenge in Polokwane but the case was thrown out of court.

Representatives of all the nine host cities attended Monday’s meeting and Jordaan said he was happy with the progress. Durban, Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane all expressed satisfaction at the progress made so far.

The only outstanding issue is in Cape Town where the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association had sought legal action to stop the demolition of the Green Point Stadium.

According to reports, the association had already on April 3 filed for a review of the process by which provincial and city authorities granted consent for the stadium's construction, claiming they "rode roughshod" over the principles of public participation.

The Green Point venue was initially earmarked as one of the practice venues along with Athlone Stadium with Newlands hosting official matches during the 2010 event. But after much deliberation and considering a number of factors including accessibility, Green Point got the thumbs up as a World Cup venue.

A hearing is set for Tuesday at 10:00 in Cape Town but the LOC is confident of victory in this matter.

"No work has been stopped anywhere in the country and we are happy about that," said Jordaan.

Meanwhile, Dr Laurine Platzky, the LOC representative in Cape Town also expressed confidence that the stadium construction in that region would not be hindered. She also said that demolition of the stadium was at an advanced stage and that the venue would be completed in time.

Dr Platzky said it was unfortunate that this issue was receiving so much attention. “The majority of the people of Cape Town want to see a stadium contracted here but it’s unfortunate that few individuals who are opposed to this project find the time and resources to phone through to radio stations and write letters to newspapers,” she said.

The support from the Western Cape government as well as the city of Cape Town was a positive indicator that the project would not be hampered, she said.

Still on stadium construction, Godfrey Nkwane said improvements to the Loftus stadium were also on track. The home of the Blue Bulls, which also hosts some Premier Soccer League teams like SuperSport United and Mamelodi Sundowns, will need minor refurbishments including a roof.

Nkwane said there was progress despite public opinion to the contrary because “we are taking the interest of local football into account and have been in touch with the PSL in this regard”.

Work will go full steam ahead during the coming PSL break from the end of May and like most of the World Cup venues, Loftus is also expected to be ready on time.

Mo Rush

April 16th, 2007, 08:52 PM

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Mo Rush

April 17th, 2007, 09:14 AM

Sunday
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Durbsboi

April 17th, 2007, 01:17 PM

Thanc for keeping this place up to date Mo :okay:

ALKUN

April 20th, 2007, 09:18 AM

IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME :banana:

Soccer City (Johannesburg) - Major upgrade 104 000
Ellis Park (Johannesburg) - Minor upgrades 60 000
Greenpoint Stadium (Cape Town) - Specially built ] 70 000
King Senzangakhona Stadium (Durban) - Specially built 80 000
Nelson Mandela Stadium (Port Elizabeth) - Specially built 50 000
Loftus Versveld (Pretoria/Tschwane) - Minor upgrades 45 000
Free State Stadium (Bloemfontein) - Major upgrade 45 000
Royal Bafokeng Stadium (Rustenburg) - Minor upgrade 45 000
Peter Mokaba Stadium (Polokwane) - Major upgrade 40 000
Mbombela Stadium (Nelspruit) - Specially built 30 000

http://www.southafrica.info/cm_pics/10years/1277-0-0-0_379932.jpg[/QUOTE]

Chimaera

April 20th, 2007, 12:45 PM

30000 for Nelspruit? I don't think so, it must be 40000. 30000 would be sufficient for European Championships, but 40k is the minimum for a World Cup.

Joop20

April 21st, 2007, 12:06 AM

Alkun, read a thread before you make a post... Mo already corrected the capacities for the stadiums, and exactly the same info has been posted a couple of days ago.

Mo Rush

April 21st, 2007, 12:23 PM

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Mo Rush

April 22nd, 2007, 01:37 AM

The remaining portion of the existing stadium is being retained for offices and workspace during construction and will be demolished towards the end of construction of the new stadium. The R120 million urban park adjacent to the new stadium will include 11 sports fields,a new tennis stadium and 2 athletics tracks in a park like setting.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/203/466437628_09d90b4243_o.jpg

Mo Rush

April 22nd, 2007, 12:01 PM

Green Point stadium: fate sealed with cement

By Melanie Peters

The City continued to pour concrete on which to lay the foundations of the 2010 World Cup soccer stadium at Green Point yesterday.

The foundations of the R2.85 billion, 68 000-seat facility are now expected to be laid this week said City of Cape Town 2010 spokesperson Pieter Cronje.

The whole site has been excavated to bed rock. "The concrete is poured to strengthen the base layer before the foundation is laid."

Addressing concerns about whether the Green Point flea-market would remain on its present site for some time, he said it was business as usual and the market would continue on Sundays and public holidays.

This week city manager Achmat Ebrahim said it was now "pointless" to continue debating whether Green Point was the appropriate venue for the controversial stadium.

Ebrahim this week at the Cape Town Press Club took a swipe at the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association (Cepa) which failed twice in the past week to get a court interdict to stop the demolition of the old stadium.

Ebrahim said the city questioned the extent and identity of the association's membership base and the interests it represented.

But Cepa's secretary Derek Gowlett said the question relating to the anonymity of their members had been asked a couple of times.

"From our own viewpoint, the anonymity of our members will be strictly maintained. Only the executive committee will know who our members or donors are. We have legal opinion that no one is entitled to ask who our members are - not the city council, not Simon Grindrod (of the Independent Democrats), and not even a court. Our constitution guarantees freedom of assembly, and that would exclude any possible intimidation by people demanding to know who belongs to a perfectly legal organisation such as ours."

He said opposition to the demolition of the present stadium may seem moot, since most of it has already come down, but there were sound legal grounds upon which this application had been brought, and although demolition was stopped, the application provided some important strategic advantages.

"Obviously our main aim is to stop the erection of the stadium on the present golf course site or what was the golf course. We have a written undertaking from the city council that they will not undertake any activities that are "irreversible".

"The moment they start any construction that our lawyers consider truly 'irreversible', we shall apply for an urgent court interdict to stop it."

"The city only received the final building plans last week. These still have to be advertised for public inspection, and only after that can they be approved. So, we are not too late with our court application."

melanie.peters@inl.co.za

* This article was originally published on page 4 of The Cape Argus on April 22, 2007

The Argus

Published on the Web by IOL on 2007-04-22 10:55:00
© Independent Online 2005. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains.

Don Omar

April 24th, 2007, 07:48 PM

South Africa vs. Itself, in Race to Get Ready for World Cup

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/23/world/23worldcup.600.jpg
Construction workers on the outskirts of Soweto, South Africa, worked earlier this month on preparing a stadium for the 2010 World Cup of soccer. In South Africa, a race is on to get ready for the games.

By SHARON LAFRANIERE
Published: April 23, 2007
nytimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/world/africa/23worldcup.html)

JOHANNESBURG, April 22 — The World Cup of soccer is still three years away. But in South Africa, the site of the 2010 games, it already feels disturbingly close at hand.

A giant race is on to renovate airports, build a high-speed rail link from Johannesburg’s airport to the suburbs and erect or renovate stadiums here and in eight other cities. Thousands of new police officers must be hired and trained; hundreds of buses purchased; an untold number of bed-and-breakfast inns rated and registered. It is at once nerve-racking and exhilarating, South Africa’s own slow-motion, nail-biting contest with itself.

“It is a wonderful opportunity, and I am sure South Africa will come out of it well,” Paul Browning, a transportation consultant, said in a telephone interview.

“We also have the opportunity to fall flat on our face,” he quickly added.

As the first Africans to stage one of the world’s most popular sporting events, people here are exquisitely aware of their chance not merely to burnish their image as the continent’s leader, but also to erase a whole host of stereotypes about Africa and its people.

They insist that they will be ready — and in general, officials with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA, say they are pleased with the state of preparations.

By at least some measures, however, South Africa is cutting it perilously close. In early January, Joseph S. Blatter, FIFA’s president, complained that the margin allotted for delays in stadium construction had been eaten up even before building began.

Work has now started on all five new stadiums, after a series of legal challenges and budget problems. Renovations of five existing stadiums are either under way or imminent. Still, South Africa’s organizers say that the timetable is so tight that even a three-week rain delay could wreak havoc.

Building a modern transportation system almost from scratch in three years may be even more difficult, analysts say. Then there are the dauntingly high crime rates and the fact that no one is sure how many beds actually exist at the bed and breakfast inns on which many fans must rely.

Like first-time Broadway producers, South Africa’s organizers veer between euphoria and quiet terror. “I don’t think I will sleep well for the next two-and-a-half to three years, until the last stadium is finished,” Danny Jordaan, the chief executive officer of the South African organizing committee, said in an interview.

FIFA departed from its norms — and perhaps took a gamble — when it awarded the 2010 World Cup to South Africa in 2004. Not since Chile was the host of the games in 1962 has soccer’s governing body chosen a nation as underdeveloped as this one, according to Econometrix, an economic analysis firm here.

And never before has South Africa undertaken such a huge event. The 350,000 anticipated visitors may be one-tenth the number that descended on Germany for the 2006 games. But they are 10 times the crowd that showed up for the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the 2002 World Summit on Development or the 2003 Cricket World Cup held in South Africa.

Rumors have flown that FIFA was reserving nations like Australia or Brazil as backups should preparations here falter. FIFA executives vehemently deny that. Plan A, B and C “is called South Africa,” Mr. Blatter said in January.

Beyond sheer determination, South Africans also have some formidable assets. Their government is adept at planning and economically flush enough to muster more than $2 billion for stadiums, infrastructure, the police and other needs. The corporate world has pledged $3.5 billion in sponsorships — more than any previous World Cup, Mr. Jordaan said.

Nor are South Africans exactly pikers at entertaining guests. Nearly a quarter million foreigners flew to South Africa last December alone, a 13 percent increase over December 2005 and a sign of the nation’s rise as a global tourism destination.

Although cricket and rugby are more popular than soccer here, many South Africans see the World Cup as a font of national pride and, perhaps, national profit. Surveys show three-fourths of medium to large businesses expect to gain financially from the games. Bed and breakfast inns are springing up like acacia trees.

Even ordinary citizens are caught up in the spell: Early this month, organizers warned families living near the Soweto stadium not to buy washing machines in hopes of earning money by laundering players’ jerseys, because each player will arrive with at least 30 clean ones.

“The World Cup is empowering our country, our people,” said Jofta Rishoto, 41, as he watched a soccer match broadcast recently at a Soweto bar. “You are going to see miracles.”

Still, a commuter system suitable for visitors simply doesn’t exist. Most South Africans travel on battered minibuses that belch smoke, stop at random intersections, follow near-indecipherable schedules and flout traffic laws with élan. Nor are the trains, typically rundown and poorly policed, an option.

The government is promising a major overhaul that will include 600 new luxury or semiluxury intercity buses, 10,000 new minibuses and 60 new trains. But Mr. Browning, the transportation specialist, said officials needed to move beyond paper. “We have got wonderful plans. The question is, can we put them into action?” he asked.

To transport spectators between cities, organizers are counting heavily on the nation’s three low-cost airlines, although some analysts say the airlines would need to acquire many more planes.

Keeping the fans safe could be as tough as moving them about. South Africa suffers a daily average of 50 murders, 700 grievous assaults and 356 aggravated robberies. “Who is going to be interested in spending a significant amount of money coming here on holiday to have a good time when you are concerned about the possibility of getting hurt?” Eric M. Bost, the American ambassador here, said last November.

The police force, continuing a seven-year steady buildup, is now hiring at least 11,000 new officers each year, officials said. But the commissioner, Jackie Selebi, is prone to fouls.

Last month he proposed setting up dedicated red-light districts where prostitution and public drinking would be tolerated during the World Cup, as he said they were in Germany.

To organizers, he missed a crucial point: Germany is not South Africa, with its raging AIDS epidemic.

Mr. Browning says planners must bear in mind such distinctions. If they approach the games as cold-eyed realists, he said, getting ready “will be difficult, but it will just be possible.”

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/23/world/23worldcup_2.650.jpg
A surveyor on the construction site of the stadium on the outskirts of Soweto. Stadiums must be built or renovated in nine cities.

Mo Rush

April 25th, 2007, 08:10 PM

2010 stadium 'ahead of schedule'

By Lindsay Dentlinger

Metro Writer

Construction work on the Green Point stadium is ahead of schedule, and the builders, who are expected to start pouring cement for the foundations of the R2.85-billion structure today, will take a five-day break over the public holidays.

The first of the foundations will be for the podium columns, under which the stadium's support services and 1 300 parking bays will be accommodated.

The City of Cape Town explained that the next stage of the foundations would be for the raking columns, which would support the bowl of the stadium.

Last would be the foundations for the construction columns, around which the stadium would be built.

Over the weekend, construction workers began pouring the concrete to reinforce the foundations of the stadium.

Tomorrow the construction team will take a break until May 2.

The city's 2010 spokesperson, Pieter Cronje, said on Tuesday that the team was "ahead of schedule", having worked over the weekends to prepare the site for the first major step of the actual construction of the stadium.

Cronje said all work carried out to date, including the reinforcement work for the foundations, was in accordance with the provisional authorisation granted by the city's building directorate last month to start with construction.

The revised design plans of the stadium are expected to be advertised for public comment within a matter of days.

As a cost-cutting measure, the city's 2010 design team and the construction consortium of WBHO and Murray & Roberts made changes to the stadium's design, reducing it slightly in size.

The revised plans are expected to reflect that the radius of the stadium will be reduced by four metres and the height lowered two metres from the original designs put out for public comment in February.

The change in dimensions would also affect the roof and floor size, but still make it Fifa-compliant.

Cronje said the design team was awaiting the results of wind tunnel testing and acoustic modelling, which were being carried out abroad and would be ready by early next month.

The approval of the final building plans are dependent on these results.

In February, the original building plans were put out for public comment, but many of those who responded were unhappy that the plans did not include the design changes.

The council did not uphold any of the appeals against the plans.

# The Cape High Court rejected an application by Fifa's Local Organising Committee (LOC) last week to have the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association (Cepa) pay its legal costs to defend a case against the demolition of the old Green Point Stadium.

In his judgement handed down on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Justice Lee Bozalek said he could not find in favour of awarding an order for costs to the LOC on the basis that they had not been given sufficient time to defend the application.

Legal representative for the city, Brendan O'Dowd, said last night that Judge Bozalek had postponed the matter and respondents could still return to court with other arguments on why they should be awarded an order for costs.

The city has not pushed for a costs order, but did ask Judge Bozalek last week to strike the case from the roll.

No judgement has been made in this regard.

Contacted after a Cepa meeting last night, chairman Arthur Wienburg declined to comment.

He said he would issue a statement today.

Cepa's main court challenge to the legal processes followed to arrive at Green Point as the site for building the stadium, is still pending.

* This article was originally published on page 3 of The Cape Argus on April 25, 2007

The Argus

Published on the Web by IOL on 2007-04-25 11:30:00
© Independent Online 2005. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains.

Mo Rush

April 25th, 2007, 08:20 PM

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Mo Rush

April 26th, 2007, 09:29 AM

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Mo Rush

April 26th, 2007, 04:00 PM

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Mo Rush

May 4th, 2007, 12:58 PM

Danny Jordaan on Cape Town and 2010

"Towards 2010: Largest sporting event will benefit city"

By Danny Jordaan

The Fifa World Cup is being held in Africa for the very first time in the history of the tournament. This is a unique moment in the history of the continent.

South Africa has been chosen to not only stage the World Cup in 2010 but also to carry the hopes, dreams and aspirations of Africa, and especially, African football.

The choice of Africa as a theatre for this spectacular event and South Africa as a stage provides a golden opportunity to change perceptions about Africa and to influence public opinion around the globe. Our vision is to strengthen the South African and African image and promote new partnerships with the world as we stage a unique and memorable event.

In staging the event, we will also inspire and drive our collective determination to be significant global players in all fields of human endeavour. We will rally our people and mobilise them to organise an African World Cup with precision, innovation and flair, and a critical component of our mission is to extend an unforgettable South African welcome to the world.

South Africa's journey and bid to host the Fifa World Cup began more than 13 years ago on September 16, 1994. This was before the successful hosting of the 1995 International Rugby Board World Cup and the International Cricket Council World Cup in 2003. We also tried unsuccessfully to host the 2004 Olympic Games, the 2006 Fifa soccer World Cup and the 2011 IRB World Cup. We have consistently as a country and as a sporting fraternity made great strides to make South Africa an international destination of choice for tourists around the world. Our message has over the years remained the same. We have repeatedly said to the world that South Africa is alive with possibilities and we have always spoken about the natural beauty and warmth of the African people from Cape to Cairo.

In our planning to deliver the World Cup, a number of cities were considered, including Cape Town, because of its historical significance and beauty. The iconic beauty of Table Mountain and Robben Island and the refreshing drive along Chapman's Peak and Cape Point remain compelling selling points for the city of Cape Town as an international attraction and global destination.

The beauty of Cape Town also lies in its people and the wealth of talent that comes from the city.

Cape Town has produced international football stars such as Benni McCarthy from Hanover Park, Quinton Fortune from Kewtown and Shaun Bartlett from Maitland, who have all made South Africans proud across the world.

Millions of young South Africans have been inspired by the likes of McCarthy, who continues to bang in the goals in the English Premier League. His achievements should warm the hearts of all South Africans, considering he started life in his parents Dora and Dudley's two-roomed council house with his siblings in Hanover Park and has now fulfilled his wildest dreams and used his football talents to provide for his family in a way he could never have imagined possible.

Many of the young children who grow up in the streets of Gugulethu and the rest of the Cape Flats, and those youngsters playing football in Camps Bay or Llandudno, draw hope and inspiration from such talent. And what better way to reward and inspire them than to bring the World Cup to Cape Town and create access for them to state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure, such as the Green Point Stadium.

Green Point Stadium was chosen as the ideal space to build a new complex for the tournament after careful consideration. The City of Cape Town conducted various studies to satisfy itself of the appropriateness of the choice of venue. After all, there is nothing new about Green Point Stadium. To refresh our national memory, during our bid to host the Olympics, Green Point Stadium was chosen as one of the venues to host the Games. At the time of the bid, there were extensive plans to construct an Olympic tennis facility within and around the existing football and athletics stadium at Green Point Stadium.

Fourteen temporary units with spectator stands were to be erected, along with a centre court seating 21 000 and a number one court seating 7 000 within the existing stadium. Everyone at the time accepted that Green Point was an ideal venue to host the Olympics. Now, there is the opportunity for Green Point to host the 2010 Fifa World Cup and for the people of Cape Town to be given the opportunity to see international football stars such as Didier Drogba, Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo and many others in action.

The City of Cape Town has, of its own accord, taken a decision to play a major role during the 2010 Fifa World Cup tournament and, in arriving at a decision to choose Green Point, the city ensured that proper studies were conducted and engaged the communities in and around the Green Point area. A number of high profile meetings and delegates from across the world have congratulated Cape Town and look forward to their next visit to the city, especially during the World Cup. The announcement of the preferred bidder and the subsequent sod-turning ceremony in Cape Town gave everyone around the world the confidence that Cape Town will be a wonderful host for the event.

Studies conducted by Grant Thornton Kessel Feinstein (GTKF) have demonstrated the economic benefits that will arise from the hosting of the World Cup, ranging from tourism attraction, accommodation and hospitality.

During our planning process for the tournament the 2010 organising committee commissioned the Development Bank of Southern Africa to rank the candidate host cities in terms of the following Fifa requirements: the cost of upgrading match and training venues, accommodation, transportation, safety and security, banking and financial services, medical and emergency services, the number of restaurants, the potential number of volunteers and financial capacity. Using this criteria, Cape Town rated extremely high in all these departments. This evaluation inspired Cape Town to seek an extended period of engagement with the 2010 Fifa World Cup. The longer the city plays a role in the tournament, the more revenue it stands to generate from the event.

The marketing opportunities for World Cup host cities is considerable. The World Cup is the largest sporting event on earth, with the 64 games watched by a cumulative audience of 40 billion people in 207 countries. It's also a massive media spectacle, covered by the world's biggest television networks, radio stations and the world's most influential newspapers and media, who for six weeks will provide invaluable exposure to World Cup host cities.

It's a public relations exercise bar none and is a wonderful opportunity for the country and the host cities to showcase itself and attract more investment and increased tourism revenue post-2010, as evidenced by the impact of the 2000 Sydney Olympics for Australia and the 2006 Fifa World Cup for Germany.

As hosts, Bafana have fortunately already qualified for the 2010 World Cup, but the 31 teams and their hundreds of thousands of fans travelling to the tournament will also bring tourist flows from new markets such as Asia and the Americas.

The acceleration of infrastructure development will also ensure world-class cities for years to come.

The tournament will also undoubtedly impact on skills development among the youth and lead to more job creation opportunities, with the GTKF study estimating that 129 000 jobs will be created as a result of the World Cup.

In addition to the tournament itself, there are a number of other events relating to the World Cup which will be held in host cities, such as the preliminary draw, the opening and closing ceremonies, the International Broadcast Centre, as well as meetings and conferences hosted by Fifa and its commercial partners.

Fifa's commercial partners were hosted in Cape Town last year and all of them were impressed with the level of hospitality and quality of service they received, as well as the keen interest and support from central government, the City of Cape Town and the province of the Western Cape. During the week they spent in Cape Town, they were met by President Thabo Mbeki, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, cabinet ministers, Premier Ebrahim Rasool and Mayor Helen Zille. This left them with no doubt about Cape Town's commitment to ensuring a successful World Cup.

The local, national and provincial spheres of government have committed themselves to ensuring that the 2010 Fifa World Cup becomes a reality for the people of Cape Town. Our key objectives remain achieving national unity and national reconciliation by providing opportunities for our people, both in the area of job creation and commercial ventures. The rest of the world is watching us and we simply cannot afford to fail. Let us therefore embrace the challenge that lies ahead.

The 2010 Fifa World Cup is already a guaranteed commercial success. Now let us as South Africans and Africans make it the best Fifa World Cup in history.

# Dr Danny Jordaan is the chief executive officer of the 2010 Fifa World Cup Organising Committee South Africa

Published on the web by Cape Argus on May 4, 2007. © Cape Argus 2007. All rights reserved.

Mo Rush

May 4th, 2007, 04:33 PM

Lead mechanical consultant awarded two new South African stadiums
By: Guy Copans
Published: 4 May 07 - 0:00
The Cape Town office of WSP Consulting Engineers South Africa has been awarded the lead mechanical consultant position for the development of both Green Point stadium, in Cape Town, and Nelson Mandela Bay, in Port Elizabeth, for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, together with its appoint- ment as the electronics services consultant for Cape Town.

Both stadiums are in the final design stages and, owing to the fast-track nature of the projects, the building contractors are already on site with the foundations going ahead.

WSP is part of a multifirm joint venture of consultants for both stadiums. The lead design architects for both stadiums is GMP Architects, of Berlin, which has opened an office in Cape Town. Both stadiums will have similar design concepts and engineering solutions.

Green Point stadium will be a 68 000-seat stadium of seven levels, including two floors that will mainly be housing car parking and players’ operational areas, under the podium entrance level. The underground areas have extremely complex ventilation designs to supply and extract air and smoke, pressurise corridors and shafts, always mindful of the requirement of crowd safety and panic in the event of a fire anywhere in the stadium, says WSP. These extracts cannot all go to the roof of the stadium owing to aesthetics and are led away underground to discharge a safe distance away.

WSP is proposing to install a brand new air-conditioning system for the many areas of the stadium to be air conditioned, owing to the unusual and varied times and areas when air conditioning is required. All areas need to operate during the times of matches, whereas only a small number of offices operate at other times, complicated by the fact that the system needs to be extended to cover other areas to be fitted out for use during the day and evenings after 2010, in order to make the stadium sustainable. The system being designed is a water-cooled variable refrigerant volume system, which is energy efficient and a good solution to the requirements of using a multiuse stadium, says WSP.

The 55 000-seat Port Elizabeth stadium is also being designed with a water-cooled VRV system, as, during the legacy stage, after 2010, the air-conditioning system will be expanded to areas not presently being built, which could encompass conference and function rooms, which would be available to the public. The stadium will also be used for rugby matches and, hence, additional boxes will be built in the legacy stage, which must be air conditioned without condensing units being added. There is one level partially under-ground, but no parking garage to deal with, so the air systems designed for Port Elizabeth are simpler, says WSP. Neither stadium has a completely closed roof, but the spectator seating is covered.

The plumbing and drainage design for a stadium is unique, says WSP, as most plumbing fixtures are used for short periods of time, but are used extensively at half time. The demands on the correct pipe sizing, together with the correct specification of robust sanitary ware and flushing devices, are unusual, and collecting and draining the rainwater from the large extents of roof are also not straightforward, says WSP.

WSP is also carrying out all the lift designs and specifications for both stadiums. Cape Town stadium has a total of 16 lifts, mainly for VIPs to gain access to the lounges and boxes at the highest levels and also to service the concession areas and kitchens at the upper levels. The general public will gain access to their seats on the stand by means of stairways from the raised podium level. The Port Elizabeth stadium will have 11 lifts eventually, with only seven being installed for the World Cup.

The complexity of the lift installations for both stadiums is such that the lift shafts are under the seating tiers and, as such, there is no space for a motor room, nor is the overrun safety space above the top floor adeqate for a standard lift. The main VIP lifts will be glass enclosed with frameless glass doors.

Ubunye Engineering Services is part of the mechanical joint venture team doing the sprinkler and hydrant hose reel design for both stadiums. Owing to the massive areas speci-fied for sprinkler protection and the heights involved, both projects require water storage tanks and pumps to drive the various systems, says WSP. As part of the fire rationale for the stadiums, certain internal areas are sprinkler protected. Sprinklers do not cover the vast, open, seated stands.

WSP is providing all the electronic and computerised services on Green Point stadium. A centralised computer sys- tem will control the various functions of the stadium, from the normal air conditioning, smoke detection, electrical, lifts and water systems, to the turnstiles, score boards, security, access control, communications and large-screen television systems.

Copyright© Creamer Media (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved.
Tel: +27(0)11 622 3744 | Fax +27(0)11 622 9350 | newsdesk@engineeringnews.co.za
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za

Calvin W

May 5th, 2007, 10:26 AM

Any bets on whether the stadium is done in time? With roughly three years to go it could be a tight schedule.

Mo Rush

May 5th, 2007, 12:43 PM

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/188/483539879_d3fca86b19_b.jpg

Mo Rush

May 5th, 2007, 12:50 PM

http://bp1.blogger.com/_ytBEwc6BKS4/RjpfYBl98nI/AAAAAAAAAHY/yCtD2_zXeBs/s1600/P1070910.JPG

First stadium foundation cast in stone

By Anell Powell

The first foundation of the city's 68 000-seat stadium, which in about 1 140 days will prepare to host the World Cup semifinal, was laid on Tuesday.

Pieter Cronje, the city's 2010 spokesperson, said the foundations of the podium that will house the 1 300 parking bays and support services will be laid first at the former site of the Metropolitan Golf Course. The raking columns that will support the stadium bowl will go in next, followed by the concrete columns that will form the structure of the stadium.

Despite the looming threat of possible legal action by the Cape Town Environment Protection Association (Cepa), the city has demolished most of the old stadium, and pressed on with the excavation of bedrock at the new site.

Turf from the golf course was removed and replanted at other city parks. The remaining part of the old stadium will be used as a construction yard for the building contractors.

The city is, in fact, ahead of its construction schedule, and Cronje said contractors would be able to down tools over the long weekend for a well-deserved break.

He said the revised building plans for the stadium would be published for public comment by next week.

The new plans will reflect the changes made by the city's 2010 team and the Murray & Roberts and WBHO consortium to reduce the size and therefore the cost of the stadium. These design changes helped cut the stadium's construction costs from R3,7-billion to R2,85-billion.

Cronje said the new structural changes would still be Fifa-compliant.

The results of wind tunnel testing and acoustic modelling would be ready next month. These are needed before the revised buildings plans can be approved.

Meanwhile, the city could still face legal action by Cepa against the construction of the stadium on the common.

A review application, to be heard in the Cape High Court, is still pending.

"Cepa is concerned that the city is continuing excavation and other below-ground work despite Cepa's application to set aside the decision to build the stadium on Green Point Common," the association said in a statement.

It added that the City had acknowledged that it was proceeding "at risk" by continuing with construction work when the revised buildings plans had yet to be approved.

Mo Rush

May 10th, 2007, 01:32 AM

http://bp3.blogger.com/_4DUwWhwnuCM/RkDkuE81KGI/AAAAAAAAADM/ib9qMf86ESU/s1600/Stadium%2Bfoundation.JPG

Mo Rush

May 10th, 2007, 01:34 AM

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/CityNews_April07_pg3_top.jpg

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Mo Rush

May 10th, 2007, 01:36 AM

NEW BUILDING PLANS FOR GREEN POINT STADIUM AVAILABLE

MEDIA RELEASE
NO. 140/2007
8 MAY 2007

NEW BUILDING PLANS FOR GREEN POINT STADIUM AVAILABLE

Residents will have another chance to view and comment on the latest set of building plans for the new City stadium in Green Point. Details of the process are being advertised in the local press.

The plans will be on view by appointment. Public comment will be presented to the City Council before it considers approval of the final building plans.

Interested parties can phone Mr Brian Tarrant on 021 400 2249 to arrange a time to view the plans which will be exhibited in a conference room. The plans will be available for inspection at the Civic Centre, Hertzog Boulevard, from 0830 to 1630 on week days until 7 June 2007.

Previous plans for the stadium were based on the initial design. The stadium has now been made smaller and lower to meet the available budget, but is still FIFA compliant.

Provisional authorisation was given for the construction of the stadium while these new plans were being prepared.

END

ISSUED BY:
DIRECTORATE: COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING
CITY OF CAPE TOWN
TEL: 021 400-2201 FAX: 021 957-0023

MEDIA QUERIES: PIETER CRONJE 082 465 4965

Mo Rush

May 14th, 2007, 10:05 PM

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/2010stadiuml.jpg

Mo Rush

May 16th, 2007, 10:03 PM

http://www.zoopy.com/photo_image/1178537573.jpg
http://www.zoopy.com/photo_image/1178529440.jpg

Mo Rush

May 17th, 2007, 04:41 PM

Jordaan visits Greenpoint Stadium site

Head of the Fifa Local Organising Committee, Danny Jordaan, paid his first site visit to the Green Point stadium construction site in Cape Town on Wednesday.

Jordaan was briefed by managing director Ray Gamble and design architect Robert Hermes who said things were progressing well and were "three weeks ahead of the earthworks schedule".

"I'm happy with what I'm seeing," said Jordaan. "Progress seems to be substantial."

Jordaan dismissed concerns raised recently in the media about safety, and the infrastructural and commercial viability of the World Cup.

"It is already a guaranteed commercial success," Jordaan said. "South Africa has a proud record of hosting major events."

As for the chances for national soccer team Bafana-Bafana, Jordaan said "I'm not a betting man but I think it's important they must do well."

Jordaan said that after 2010 he imagined Green Point stadium would be put to "multipurpose use" for occasions like international sporting events, concerts, or even church services. - Sapa

Quickwire

Published on the Web by IOL on 2007-05-16 19:22:01
© Independent Online 2005. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains.

marrio415

May 18th, 2007, 06:25 AM

I think south africa will host a great world cup.And will look forward to watching it.

Mo Rush

May 20th, 2007, 12:59 PM

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/221/503825860_220bc1b9de_o.jpg

Juanl

May 20th, 2007, 01:31 PM

Mo, are you a pilot or something? Where you getting all these aerials from?

Mo Rush

May 20th, 2007, 05:03 PM

http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/15520071137271.jpg20071137271.jpg

2010 planning on track

Green Point Stadium under construction May 07The City of Cape Town’s 2010 planning is on track, with construction of the new stadium underway, and the focus shifting to the redevelopment of Green Point Common and other 2010 preparations.

City 2010 spokesperson Pieter Cronje says work is progressing well with the stadium and its future home – the Green Point Common. “We are more than halfway through sharing our plans on the future of the Common with the people of Cape Town, and getting their input,” he said.

A series of public consultations are taking place across the metropolitan area to allow residents to have their say in what the 85-hectare Common’s sports and recreation precinct will look like. The City has budgeted R120-million for the redevelopment of the Common.

“We have had favourable feedback from the public about the plans to give it a facelift and have sporting facilities, recreational facilities and walkways to make it a space for all the residents of Cape Town,” Cronje said.

The old Metropolitan Golf Course and Green Point Stadium area is unrecognisable, with the old stadium partially demolished, the area cordoned off, trees cut down, road diverted, and construction crews working on the new stadium.

Foundations are being poured for the columns of the podium – which will house parking bays and services for the stadium – with foundations for the stadium raking columns and columns themselves following thereafter.

“The focus is shifting to preparations for 2010, in terms of infrastructure, facilities, public transport, and overall preparation to host biggest event in the world,” Cronje said.

The City has extended the closure date for tenders for the long-term operator for the stadium. At least eighteen interested parties have collected tender documents so far. “We had specific requests from interested parties, they wanted to ensure that they could give us a proper business plans and submissions, as it is a major investment.”

TEBC

May 20th, 2007, 11:52 PM

any new construction pics?

Mo Rush

May 21st, 2007, 10:33 AM

any new construction pics?

Dont be lazy see below and rest of the thread.

Mo Rush

May 21st, 2007, 07:06 PM

Cape Town extends cut-off date for stadium operator proposals
By: Nelendhre Moodley
Published: 21 May 07 - 16:19
Bidders now have until July 10 to submit proposals for the operation of Cape Town's new Green Point stadium, after the cut-off date was postponed from the end of May.

The city intends to sign a 30-year agreement with a preferred operator for the stadium and an adjacent urban park.

City of Cape Town spokesperson Danie Malan told Engineering News Online on Monday that the period had been extended after potential bidders had said the city’s requirement for detailed responses meant that more time was needed.

The City of Cape Town is developing a world-class multIpurpose stadium facility and sporting precinct (urban park) to accommodate football, rugby, concerts and events.

Malan said that so far the city had only received enquiries, and had as yet not received any proposals.

“We will consider the proposals in July,” he affirmed.

In response to Engineering News Online question on when the successful bidder would be announced, Malan said that it would not be made public later than August.

The new 68 000-seater Green Point stadium is scheduled to host 2010 soccer World Cup matches, including semifinals.

Earlier Malan had explained that while the outer design parameters for the stadium had already been determined, the operator would be involved in the detailed design.

The operator, which will be involved in design input, the site development plan of the urban park and will assist the city with new ideas in managing the new leases, will also be given an opportunity to submit proposals for use of space in the stadium, such as a fitness club or restaurants.

As a result, the appointment of the operator would be made well in advance of stadium completion to avoid the need for last-minute changes.

The city was hoping to attract international interest.

Mo Rush

May 22nd, 2007, 12:14 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqocC3elhC4

Mo Rush

May 24th, 2007, 09:40 PM

Construction View

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/227/512171546_53186f4f26_o.jpg

Mo Rush

May 25th, 2007, 06:13 PM

Stadium ready for next phase

By LINDSAY DENTLINGER
Metro Writer

The city's 2010 World Cup stadium project team is to approach the city council for the second time next week to permit them to apply for permission to continue building the stadium at Green Point, while the final building plans are still out for public comment and not yet approved.

Mayoral committee member for Finance, Ian Neilson, told Mayco yesterday that construction work was progressing at such a rate that, by the end of May, contractors would have carried out all the work permitted under a first provisional authorisation of the building plans granted by the city's building control officer in March.

The final building plans, which include design changes made in January to reduce the cost of the R2.8 billion stadium, are currently out for public comment and will only be ready for approval by July.

Construction is happening on a sequential basis, with the site divided into segments with separate construction crews assigned to each segment.

Bulk excavation is about 90% complete, 55 bases have been excavated and 32 cast to date.

Failure to obtain provisional approval for further works would mean re-drafting the work schedule, which would slow down construction.

It could also put the city in breach of contract with claims in the order of R450 000 a day being incurred.

Expenditure on the project to date, excluding VAT but including professional fees, is R307 million.

This excludes work completed but as yet not certified.

The city's 2010 director, Dave Hugo, said in a document submitted to Mayco yesterday that he required permission to apply for further provisional approval of the plans to allow for earthworks and lateral support, the deviation of bulk services, foundations, underfloor services, concrete surface beds, columns, suspended slabs and beams, lift and stair shafts and retaining walls all up to and including the casting of the level 2 podium slab.

Provisional authorisation is also required for the casting of the first lift of raking columns above the podium level slab.

If the contractor was not able to remain ahead of the short-term construction programme, as is the case now, they will be unable to shave time off its early-2010 completion date to the end of 2009, as required by Fifa.

"This lag in the completion date is due to the delayed commencement of works as a result of the need to finalise a reduced scope of works and the need to secure funding before the award of the contract. Any delay in the construction progress could result in Cape Town being jettisoned as a host city which will result in national funding being withdrawn but with the city being left with a legally binding contract with the contractor," says the document.

By the end of May all bulk excavation will be complete.

About 10% of bases and 2% of columns between levels 0 and 1 will have been cast.

This work, valued at R479m excluding VAT, is within the current provisional building authorisation authority.

If a second provisional authorisation is granted by the city's building control officer, the city would be allowed to carry out work to the value of R550m until the time when it will be faced with approving the final building plans.

Mo Rush

May 29th, 2007, 08:21 PM

Top stories

Further authorisation sought as stadium construction moves ahead, 27 May 2007
An application for additional building authorisation will be made for the new multi-purpose Green Point stadium because the construction work is ahead of schedule. The authorisation will ensure that the project continues to be legally compliant. (more>>)

Lively interest - Tender process for stadium operator, 27 May 2007
There has been a very encouraging response from the private sector with 19 interested parties having drawn tender documents to operate the stadium. They have until 10 July 2007 to submit their business plans. (more>>)

Merchandising, 25 May 2007
With an estimated cumulative global television audience of 25 billion for World Cup 2006 played in Germany and an estimated 3 billion US dollars worth of business for World Cup 2010, the biggest sporting event in the world is big business. (more>>)

lpioe

May 29th, 2007, 08:55 PM

Awesome stadium and location.
Will a local football team play in it after the WC?

Mo Rush

May 29th, 2007, 09:03 PM

Awesome stadium and location.
Will a local football team play in it after the WC?
no, the stadium will be run by a private operator, will be there responsibility to either get the rugby team to move to the stadium or get some local soccer teams to play, either way the private opeator will want to make a profit

Mo Rush

May 30th, 2007, 06:43 PM

http://www.zoopy.com/photo_image/1179839108.jpg

Mo Rush

May 31st, 2007, 01:14 PM

One of the most critical decisions before us in this regard is a request for Council to approve provisional authorisation for further construction work on the Green Point stadium.

Construction of the stadium has so far proceeded under a provisional building plan approval pending consideration of the final plans at the end of June.

But the contractor for the stadium is approximately 5 weeks ahead of schedule.

The excavation work on the stadium site is about 90% complete and casting of the concrete bases has commenced, with 10% already complete.

In order to ensure that we remain within our authorised mandate, and in order to avoid wasting the time we have gained, we therefore need to extend authorisation to the substructure of the stadium.

The City is well advanced with its other preparations for 2010, especially with regard to transport.

Last week the meeting between the City, Province and the National Director General of Transport revealed that we are leading the way in South Africa with the transport strategy we have formulated together with Province.

There has also been a very encouraging response for the post-2010 stadium operator with 19 interested parties having collected tender documents from the City.

Several of the interested parties requested an extension of the original deadline to enable them to submit comprehensive business plans.

Mo Rush

June 6th, 2007, 12:06 AM

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1317/532074194_e396415006_b.jpg

Additional building needed for Green Point stadium
June 05, 2007, 11:00

An application for additional building at the new multi-purpose Green Point stadium is to be made to the City of Cape Town.

This is because the construction work is five weeks ahead of schedule.

Pieter Cronje, the 2010 spokesperson, says the current construction work is still within the authorisation given earlier this year.

"We are coming to the end of phase one. We now have to go to phase two and therefore we need provisional authorisation from the building plans department to continue with the building," Cronje says.

Mo Rush

June 8th, 2007, 11:48 PM

Robert Hermes, GMP on "the cloud" Cape Town stadium:

At the moment, a thick greyish-white ribbon of cloud is hovering once again over Cape Town’s famous landmark, the monumental Table Mountain. When a new structure has been completed at the end of 2009 echoing this natural phenomenon – light, elongated, with flowing contours – then a group of German architects will have achieved their aim. Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) have in fact dubbed their stadium design “The Cloud” which is currently under construction in the north-west of Cape Town. At the moment, the site is still a huge empty expanse, but this is where football fans from around the globe will be cheering the international teams during the 2010 World Cup.

Endeavours to promote bilateral cooperation also explain why the German architectural office is working with numerous South African partners on the stadium projects. In Cape Town, the two partners are Louis Karol Architects and Point Architects and Urban Designers. But the “Rainbow Nation’s” policies are also promoting cooperation projects with domestic specialists. The reason behind this is to overcome the decades of Apartheid that systematically excluded the non-white population from economic participation. Consequently, the government now requires all companies involved in enterprise in South Africa – including companies from abroad – to abide by the regulations of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). One of the rules in this framework specifies that a certain number of non-white women and men must be employed in every company. But the German architects’ discovered themselves facing changes which turned out to be of an entirely different nature: “It took us some time to adapt to Cape Town’s rhythm,” recalls one of the gmp colleagues in the waterfront office.

The stadium in Cape Town represents a particular challenge. On the one hand, it has to accommodate 70,000 sports fans, but it also has to intrude as little as possible on the typical landscape surrounding the city. This is why the gmp architects came up with the idea of “The Cloud”. To avoid “any competition with the characteristic horizontal contours of Table Mountain,” explains project manager Robert Hormes, the upper edge of the stadium undulates giving it a different, but permanently soft and flowing appearance from every possible perspective. As a result of the height specifications, the architects designed a glass roof that dips towards the centre of the arena. The stadium’s outer membrane is composed of light-coloured fibreglass to give the external impression of transparency and brightness, as well as providing unimpeded views from within.

altachlo87

June 11th, 2007, 08:00 AM

amazing.. the stadium is sleek and simple! but nice to see and seems (hopefully) good to use!:nuts:

Mo Rush

June 17th, 2007, 01:14 AM

http://i.pbase.com/o6/75/426675/1/80622216.OeviZv1m.P1010358.JPG

TEBC

June 17th, 2007, 04:00 AM

How they are going to do the Olympic Games in this space without a Stadium for Track and Field?

Mo Rush

June 18th, 2007, 03:00 AM

they not going to use this stadium for the olympics, it cant hold an athletics track. apart from that there is not plan within the next few years to bid for the games

Mo Rush

June 18th, 2007, 03:00 AM

http://i.pbase.com/o6/75/426675/1/80622221.Tetx1cQQ.P1010309.JPG

TEBC

June 18th, 2007, 03:10 AM

Why not?!?! That´s not posible!! Cape Town was my favorite bid...

Mo Rush

June 18th, 2007, 04:57 PM

http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/1862007133441.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/186200713461.jpg

Mo Rush

June 22nd, 2007, 12:46 AM

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/image006.jpg

Mo Rush

June 24th, 2007, 10:06 PM

http://www.zoopy.com/photo_image/1182704797.JPG

Mo Rush

July 4th, 2007, 06:22 PM

http://i.pbase.com/o6/75/426675/1/81615713.XpjTjEch.P7024266.JPG
http://i.pbase.com/o6/75/426675/1/81615712.mVMwTVRf.P7024267.JPG

more images soon .

Mo Rush

July 10th, 2007, 10:15 PM

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/770276513_4496a6b661_o.jpg

Mo Rush

July 11th, 2007, 10:19 PM

http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/1172007154641.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/11720071624121.jpg

Mo Rush

July 22nd, 2007, 03:52 PM

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1230/864639653_d11dd9b8ef_o.jpg

Mo Rush

July 24th, 2007, 10:54 PM

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1373/864639729_9db22cc425_o.jpg

eddyk

July 26th, 2007, 10:47 AM

They have finally started building it then.

I've been looking at renders for the last 3 years watching the clock tick down to the finals.

Mo Rush

July 26th, 2007, 12:12 PM

They have finally started building it then.

I've been looking at renders for the last 3 years watching the clock tick down to the finals.

3 years? lol. Renders were only released in mid 2006 and construction started in march 07, currently 5 weeks ahead of schedule.

Mo Rush

July 26th, 2007, 12:42 PM

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1114/903006988_f37be43cbb_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1052/902151805_87d72c32d2_b.jpg

Mo Rush

August 1st, 2007, 12:54 AM

http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/2772007153011.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/27720071529391.jpg
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http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1281/907098318_3d6f844752_b.jpg

Mo Rush

August 2nd, 2007, 05:02 PM

http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/28200712131.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/282007121371.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/282007121591.jpg

Mo Rush

August 7th, 2007, 05:29 PM

http://bp0.blogger.com/_4DUwWhwnuCM/RrWPbzmil5I/AAAAAAAAADk/abqFTCEkNgA/s1600/IMG_0365.JPG

CharlieP

August 8th, 2007, 11:31 AM

Cape Town - World's best city in Africa and the Middle East

Isn't that a bit like saying:

Sydney - World's biggest city in Australasia and the Pacific
Ben Nevis - World's tallest mountain in the UK and Ireland
Canada - World's best rugby team in North and Central America

:rofl:

AltiusAltiusAltius

August 8th, 2007, 11:43 AM

lol

EADGBE

August 8th, 2007, 02:11 PM

Great pictures though. It's putting the Durban thread to shame! ;)

Mo Rush

August 8th, 2007, 02:33 PM

Mo Rush

August 9th, 2007, 04:45 PM

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/parkplan.jpg

kulani

August 10th, 2007, 12:48 AM

Isn't that a bit like saying:

Sydney - World's biggest city in Australasia and the Pacific
Ben Nevis - World's tallest mountain in the UK and Ireland
Canada - World's best rugby team in North and Central America

:rofl:

Could be if you wanted to look at it that way. But for those who don't know anything about South Africa, it does the trick when it comes to marketing the city. And that's what really matters and not how CharlieP from Wakefield looks at it. :lol:

Mo Rush

August 13th, 2007, 09:49 PM

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1081/1105097476_7451e2eb20_b.jpg

Mo Rush

August 13th, 2007, 09:52 PM

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1210/1097144313_04b0fd9d82_b.jpg

skaP187

August 14th, 2007, 01:25 PM

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/parkplan.jpg

Is this area reserved for some kind of olympics?

Mo Rush

August 14th, 2007, 03:41 PM

Is this area reserved for some kind of olympics?

Yes and No.
If Cape Town goes ahead and bids for the Olympic Games, I am sure the site would act as the venue for Football, Tennis and possible other sports.

During the 2004 Olympic Bid, the now partially demolished Green Point Stadium was to host tennis and the Granger Bay area surrounding the stadium was to host Triathlon and the Road Cycling Finish.

I doubt that it would be used as the Main Olympic Park.

Mo Rush

August 17th, 2007, 12:42 PM

http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/17820071120241.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/17820071119261.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/17820071120491.jpg

skaP187

August 17th, 2007, 04:26 PM

Yes and No.
If Cape Town goes ahead and bids for the Olympic Games, I am sure the site would act as the venue for Football, Tennis and possible other sports.

During the 2004 Olympic Bid, the now partially demolished Green Point Stadium was to host tennis and the Granger Bay area surrounding the stadium was to host Triathlon and the Road Cycling Finish.

I doubt that it would be used as the Main Olympic Park.

It looks pretty big, or isn´t it? Big enough for the majority of Olympic sports?

Mo Rush

August 17th, 2007, 04:34 PM

It looks pretty big, or isn´t it? Big enough for the majority of Olympic sports?

Not really. A more suitable location would be used about 7-10 mins from the city.

The golf course uses a large portion of the site.

Possible sports:
Existing venues: Football, Tennis, Triathlon

Possible other sports: Archery, Hockey, Track Cycling

But other good existing venues already exist for these sports.

http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/8820071535411.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/8820071535241.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/882007153541.jpg

Mo Rush

August 22nd, 2007, 02:11 PM

http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/20820071520521.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/20820071521431.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/20820071521111.jpg

Gherkin

August 23rd, 2007, 12:20 AM

Wow great updates Mo! I might come back to this thread in a few months when these fantastic aerial shots will have more of a stadium to them :)

Mo Rush

August 29th, 2007, 10:15 AM

17 cranes, 1050 workers

Full steam ahead on 2010 stadium

By Helen Bamford

In spite of finds of human remains, ammunition and old wagon wheels while excavating the site of the new 2010 stadium in Green Point, construction is steaming ahead, with part of the stands already visible.

Health and safety manager Russell Nicolson said a partial skull was found during excavations of the site, which were overseen by the Cape Archaeological Society, but nothing would pose a threat to the development.

Bucket-loads of golf balls were also plucked out of the ground, hardly surprising considering it was the site of the old Metropolitan Golf Course.

In 2003 the discovery of 3 000 human skeletons during construction works at Prestwich Place in Green Point brought that development to a halt.

But at this stage it is unlikely that anything, not even the pending legal action by a local civic group, will stop the controversial R2.85 billion, 68 000-seater stadium, which is fast taking shape.

Approximately 1 050 people are working flat-out on the site, which is divided into four distinct areas.

Each one has its own self-contained section with a shop, administration areas, site offices, locker rooms and "chill-out" areas. They are colour-coded and each has a soccer theme.

Walkways and roads have also been constructed to enable people to negotiate the site with ease.

One engineer told Weekend Argus the stadium site was as organised and sophisticated as any they had worked on abroad.

Seventeen state-of-the-art cranes, shipped from Germany, tower over the site, with the largest looming 79.5m skywards.

Each crane operator, including a first-ever female one, has two "banksmen" to direct operations.

Nicolson said the banksmen were responsible for all the rigging and making sure it was safe.

He said it was also a good plan for a crane operator to be on good terms with his banksmen to ensure their lunch and snacks were hoisted up.

He added that each crane had its own radio frequency so operators could only ever talk to their own banksmen, to avoid any potential confusion.

The old, partially demolished stadium is being used as a construction yard where concrete is mixed and all the re-inforcing material manufactured.

Nicolson said that most of the concrete and steel from the old stadium had been recycled in a huge crusher and some of it was being used on the new site.

Most of the expertise on site is local, apart from a few international specialists.

The stadium's exterior will be covered with cladding to reduce noise levels, while the roof will be designed in such a way that noise will be reflected back into the stadium.

Nicolson said a number of smaller local contractors had combined forces in joint ventures because of the scale of the project.

So far there had been no serious incidents on site, just a few minor "finger injuries".

And the only problems with theft had been from journalists visiting the site who had made off with their hard-hats and reflective safety vests, he added.

The first sod on the project, which is a joint venture between Murray & Roberts and Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO), was turned by Premier Ebrahim Rasool and Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille on March 20.

Weekend Argus learned that when Fifa president Sepp Blatter later visited the site in June with Rasool and Zille, a special road had to be built for their motorcade, which comprised some 140 people.

A viewing platform was also hastily constructed for the party taking pictures of the site with Table Mountain in the background, before heading on their way.

The City of Cape Town's 2010 spokesman, Pieter Cronje, said Fifa wanted to inspect the stadium by the end of October 2009 but the entire project would be finished in mid-February 2010.

The World Cup takes place between June 11 and July 11, 2010, and Cape Town expects to host a semi-final.

Cronje said they were looking for an operator to run the site as a commercial venture after the World Cup, which would generate income for the city.

This would include managing the urban park and common surrounding the stadium.

The end-product will comprise a number of plush VIP areas, medical and police stations, offices, a soccer and rugby museum and fan shops.

It will also have its own generators - in case of blackouts.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on August 25, 2007.

Mo Rush

August 30th, 2007, 04:40 PM

From this image we get some idea of the scale of the columns of the stadium facade.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/image001.jpg?t=1188484712
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/30820071441571.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/30820071441121.jpg
http://web.capetown.gov.za/WCMS/images/30820071442141.jpg

Mo Rush

September 7th, 2007, 11:04 PM

http://www.zoopy.com/video_2692_Walkthrough_of_Green_Point_Stadium.html

city_thing

September 8th, 2007, 10:44 AM

So many cranes. Great to see!

Awesome location as well. Cape Town is beautiful.

Mo Rush

September 9th, 2007, 10:05 PM

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/1351851764_255cbae471_b.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/1350590010_cdc50722d5_b.jpg
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Lydon

September 11th, 2007, 09:56 PM

Slowly but surely getting there! =D

Mo Rush

September 11th, 2007, 11:08 PM

Sports delegation say stadium is on track

By BRONWYNNE ESBACH

A high-level sports delegation left the construction site at Green Point Stadium in high spirits after a visit that erased doubts that Cape Town was ready for the 2010 World Cup.

German soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer, Danny Jordaan, CEO of the South African 2010 World Cup Organising Committee, and Issa Hayatou, the president of the Confederation of African Football, visited Green Point stadium yesterday.

Beckenbauer, a Fifa executive member, said Germany had dealt with the same stumbling blocks when they hosted the World Cup last year.

"Munich stadium also took around two-and-a-half years to complete and it is a wonderful stadium. I am an expert on new stadiums and I am happy to witness what is happening here," said Beckenbauer.

He was in the country for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Confederation of African Football.

He described the design of Green Point Stadium as a combination of the Berlin and Munich stadiums.

"I am very, very impressed. There is a lot of work facing the people, but everyone is doing an excellent job."

He believed South Africa also stood a chance of winning at soccer's biggest showpiece.

"The whole world will be watching, and to host a World Cup is a gift from God. South Africa has the home advantage, and very talented players and one of the best coaches in the world. South Africa has a good chance of winning in 2010."

In relation to the escalating crime problem, Beckenbauer said he "trusts government to control the crime problem".

Jordaan added that South Africa had hosted a number of major sporting events, such as the Tri-Nations and Super 14.

"The security and safety of the players has always been there. I have no problem re-assuring people that they will be safe when they come here."

Hayatou said construction at the stadium had made great progress since his visit in June.

"The way things are going now I am optimistic and I feel this will be completed on time," said Hayatou.

The principal project manager at the site, AndrÃ© Lambrecht, said the stadium was a "massive undertaking", and that progress was influenced by "environmental factors".

"We have a bad winter, and the design is difficult. This is a real challenge, but we are really pleased," he said.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on September 8, 2007.