BuaNews (Tshwane)
Bathandwa Mbola
27 February 2008
Cape Town — Residents in Khayelitsha in the Cape Flats will benefit from a R300 million extension of the existing local railway line construction which will begin at the end of this week.
Residents from Makhaza, Harare, Mandela Park and Kuyasa will benefit from the 4.5 kilometre rail extension which is expected to increase the number of rail commuters by more than 40 000 in the next decade and beyond.
Site agent, Louis Mouton said the upgrade is the first in decades and the construction will provide four road-over-rail bridges, four stations, and two transport interchanges.
He said the alterations to existing road infrastructure and road network upgrading will enhance access to stations and bridges.
"There will be short term job creation for local people during construction and more than a hundred are already employed," Mr Mouton said, adding that it has also created opportunities for more than a dozen local small and medium-sized businesses.
The project is an integral part of the Public Transport Development plan in the Cape region.
It is viewed as a transport corridor project since it is a partnership between the City of Cape Town, the National Department of Transport, South African Rail Commuter Corporation and Metrorail.
It is also the anchor project in the Urban Renewal Programme (URP) for the region.
The URP focuses on areas of greatest deprivation and includes investment in economic and social infrastructure, human resource development, enterprise development, enhancing development capacity of local government, poverty alleviation and strengthening the criminal justice system.
In Cape Town, Khayelitsha and Mitchell's Plain were identified as urban renewal focus areas to enable systematic and sustained interventions to alleviate poverty and significantly address under-development and socio-economic exclusion
Due to the construction, Mr Mouton said from Friday, motorists will be diverted at the junction of Walter Sisulu and Oscar Mpetha roads onto a new bypass road.
This, he said will expedite the building of an overhead railway bridge to the new station.
The Oscar Mpetha Road will be closed between Walter Sisulu and Tambo Roads and traffic will be diverted around the construction site on Tambo Road.
Traffic using Walter Sisulu Road to travel from the Strand in the direction of Cape Town will have to turn right into Steve Tshwete Road, left into Tambo Road and left into Bathandwa Ndodo Road.
Those driving from Baden Powell Drive along Oscar Mpetha Road should turn right into Walter Sisulu Road and left into Steve Tshwete Road to use the Tambo Road detour.
Mr Mouton called on motorists and pedestrians to be patient and exercise caution during the construction phase.
"The inconvenience that might be experienced is regretted but it is in everyone's long-term interest that the project be completed as quickly as possible," he said.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 BuaNews. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
