Minister reveals huge Cape road spending
By LUVUYO MJEKULA
More than R1.5 billion is being spent on the construction and upgrading of roads in Cape Town in preparation for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup.
National Transport Minister S'bu Ndebele provided a breakdown of the funding received by the city of Cape Town from the Public Transport Infrastructure and Systems Grant (PTIS) to construct roads after being questioned by DA shadow minister Manny de Freitas about it.
De Freitas had asked Ndebele for details such as budgets, timeframes and monitoring of expenditure. Ndebele said funding for some of the roads had also been sourced from the city and province.
The City of Cape Town has contributed more than R100 million to an amount of R836m that will be spent on the planning, designing, construction and management of a Bus Rapid Transit system in the Koeberg corridor. Cycle lanes on the R27 and Koeberg route will be constructed to link Table View with the CBD.
"We are building a lot of cycle lanes so that people can cycle to different events and viewing areas during the World Cup," said city transport executive support officer Trevor Steyn. The project is expected to be completed by April 30.
Another BRT project is planned for Klipfontein at a cost of R116m .
The envisaged completion date is February 2.
The City of Cape Town contributed R13.9m and the provincial government put in almost R20m.
By March 31, authorities hope to have completed upgrading Hospital Bend on the N2. The project has a budget of R380m.
Then there is the project to link the Cape Town International Airport to the city.
It entails upgrading and extending Provincial Truck Road 2, section 1 between Vanguard Drive and the R300 as well as upgrading the airport approach road interchange on the N2. The project has a planned completion date of March 31 with a budget of R100m.
Symphony Way and Fritz Sonnenberg Street from Granger Bay would also be upgraded.
An inner city transport system is to be set up which will include the CBD and offshore, the Port of Cape Town and the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront as well as all the suburbs of the City Bowl.
The project would extend eastwards to include Green Point, Sea Point and Camps Bay and then the Culemborg area, Woodstock, Salt River, Observatory and Mowbray.
It is planned to be completed on April 30.
City authorities are confident work will be completed before the World Cup in June next year.
"The progress we have made is enough for us to know we will be able to deliver on our targets. We are pretty much on target," said Steyn.
He said all 2010 signage had been finished and would be put up around the city by April.
"We would like to have everything done by May 2010 so that we can do test-runs," he said.
luvuyo.mjekula@inl.co.za
Published on the web by Cape Times on December 30, 2009. © Cape Times 2009. All rights reserved.