Creative ideas for unfinished freeway

Cape Town - 131017 - The city is looking at various ways to make use of the unfinished bridges in the City Bowl Foreshore. Picture: David Ritchie

Cape Town - 131017 - The city is looking at various ways to make use of the unfinished bridges in the City Bowl Foreshore. Picture: David Ritchie

Published Oct 18, 2013

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Cape Town - Cape Town’s unfinished freeway, popular in film and fashion shoots, could be used as a cemetery or a lofty spot to farm cabbages.

These are just some of the imaginative suggestions sent to the city in the past few months, says Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for transport.

Another idea is to turn the freeway into a water feature, with water cascading over the edges.

Rashiq Fataar, of the Future Cape Town think tank, said other ideas included turning it into giant waterslides or a modern skate park.

A survey by Future Cape Town earlier this year showed support for removing cars from the freeway so the unjoined ends could be converted into a green space for pedestrians and cyclists. Respondents were also keen to see an amphitheatre or museum.

Herron said he had passed on all the ideas he had received to the faculty of engineering and the built environment at UCT, where about 250 students from five departments are working on proposals for the unfinished freeways and the Foreshore.

This Future Foreshore project, in partnership with the City of Cape Town, is a Design Capital 2014 initiative. The students have been given carte blanche to come up with ideas to transform the derelict precinct into a vibrant, mixed-use public space.

Herron said the city would decide on what to do with the unfinished freeway by April, after a public exhibition of UCT’s proposals and “intensive public dialogue”.

The city would then move ahead with its conceptual brief so a team of experts could be appointed.

Although Capetonians will have to wait a few months to see what the students have come up with, ideas include hotels, canals, monorails, water towers, flats and affordable housing.

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Cape Argus

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