Coast is clear: nine years of work on Cape Town road is finally over

Nine years and R340-million later‚ work to rehabilitate one of Cape Town’s main coastal tourist roads is over.

Main Road between Muizenberg and Fish Hoek has been beset by roadworks and traffic jams since March 2008 but the final “minor snags” will be fixed by the end of the week‚ City of Cape Town mayoral committee member Brett Herron said on Thursday.

He said most of the money went on three projects:

- Rehabilitation of the road base layers and surfacing of Main Road between Atlantic Road in Muizenberg and Clovelly Road;

- A new retaining wall at Clovelly; and

- Replacing underground services such as 100-year-old sewer pipes and a 50-year-old water main at Clovelly.

“We also installed low-voltage electricity cables‚ new stormwater infrastructure and streetlights‚” said Herron.

“The construction of a new retaining wall above the railway line in Clovelly posed the biggest challenge. Apart from making it possible to widen the road at this section‚ the retaining wall also serves as a support structure for Main Road.

“We have used state-of-the-art technology to stabilise and compact the soil to ensure that it has sufficient bearing capacity for the foundations of the retaining wall. This technology saved us up to six months’ working time.”

Nineteenth-century sandstone kerbs were lifted and relaid in their original positions in Kalk Bay and St James‚ said Herron.

“The significance of this project is obvious given that Main Road is one of only three access routes to the far south and that it currently carries about 20‚000 vehicles per day‚” he said.

“We estimate that the investment in Main Road will extend the lifecycle of the road by at least another 20 years without the need for major maintenance.”