As pressure mounts from civic groups and the business sector, all eyes now turn to Sanral and the City of Cape Town to act decisively in a collaborative effort to widen Brackenfell Boulevard bridge over the N1, and to widen the road in both directions on either side of the bridge.
Thousands of residents, commuters, and businesses are already feeling the daily impact of severe congestion. Stakeholders warn that a failure to future-proof this vital artery now could lock the region into decades of gridlock.
The message from the community is clear: a three-lane bridge won’t cut it. Brackenfell needs bold infrastructure now, not stopgap solutions.
Urgent Plea
Tygerberg Business Chamber as well as Vredekloof Community Improvement District last week made an urgent plea to Sanral and the City of Cape Town to reconsider the proposed plans for the upgrade of the bridge and to engage with stakeholders before finalising construction.
The said bodies hold the substantiated contention that the plan as it currently stands will not sufficiently address the severe and increasing traffic congestion in this area, as worded in formal letters addressed to the Mayor of Cape Town, Sanral and the Premier of the Western Cape Alan Winde.
They highlighted the urgent need to widen the bridge to two lanes in both directions rather than the proposed expansion by Sanral to redesign the road over the bridge to only three lanes – two in a northerly direction, and one in a southern direction.
Representing 3 000 residents and more than 1 000 property owners, Leon Brynard, manager of the chair of NDCF, says the proposed plan falls short in providing a long-term solution to increasing traffic volumes, given the extensive developments underway in the surrounding areas.
These include the new high school in Brackenfell currently under construction to accommodate 1 200 learners; 250 flats under construction in Vredekloof East, and 199 more approved in Vredekloof; a mixed-use property development with 2 073 residential units and 31 400m² commercial space at Glengarry; a retirement village development with 171 residential units, and 383 parking bays for office space.
Survey data
Traffic volume data obtained from LPR cameras in the area further substantiates their concerns. Data gathered indicates that over 5 600 vehicles cross the bridge in weekday peak hour traffic between 07:00 and 09:00, averaging 2 800 vehicles per hour.
On Fridays, high traffic volumes persist throughout the day, reaching 2 000 vehicles per hour until 19:00. Saturdays see over 12 000 vehicles cross the bridge from 09:00 to 15:00, averaging more than 2 000 vehicles per hour.
In a recent survey conducted, 4 280 motorists confirmed the daily struggle they face due to severe congestion.
According to the survey, 70% of respondents cross the bridge on two or more occasions each day. Of these, 78% indicated that they find the situation “extremely serious and disrupting” while 20% indicated that they find the situation “serious and disrupting”.
Furthermore, 80% indicated that changing the bridge to only three lanes will be totally inadequate to handle traffic volumes. Significantly, 97% of respondents indicated that the traffic congestion on the bridge has a very negative impact on their personal or business productivity, while 93% very strongly feel that no further development should be approved for the surrounding area until the bridge is upgraded to two lanes in both directions.
Plan inadequate
“No matter how you look at it, the plan is inadequate to handle current and future traffic volumes,” says Brynard.
“Currently, the one lane in each direction causes major congestion over the bridge. Sanral proposes a three-lane bridge, while the one lane in each direction on both sides of the bridge will create a bottleneck.”
Thus, as plans stand, any future planning by the City to widening Brackenfell Boulevard to four lanes on both sides of the bridge will be rendered ineffective as the bridge will remain a bottleneck, according to Brynard.
“If work proceed as currently designed, we risk facing the same congestion issues within a few years, necessitating further costly and disruptive upgrades. Failure to properly expand the bridge now will likely mean that a critical infrastructure upgrade will be postponed for decades, because Sanral will never come back to widening the bridge.”
Chair of the Tygerberg Business Chamber, Sunel Beeselaar, agrees that the current plan will nullify the widening of the rest of the Boulevard to four lanes.
“Three lanes over the bridge may alleviate some congestion on the short term but with the amount of development coming it will definitely only be a short-term solution. Several large retailers like Shoprite have established distribution centres in Brackenfell as this is the most central point in the Peninsula for distribution. Several call and data centres have also located in the Brackenfell industrial areas.
“This brings trucks and employees with vehicles as well as more people settling in our area, which all adds to traffic congestion and negatively affecting productivity due to deliveries, staff, customers and support services battling through traffic,” she says.
“We have several schools in our area and residential development north of the N1 is substantial. These people work and send children to school on the southern side of the N1. The bottleneck in the Brackenfell Boulevard crossing the N1 is a nightmare in both directions.”
City engaging with Sanral
In response to a media inquiry, the City’s Mayco member for urban mobility, Rob Quintas, stated that the City is engaging with Sanral to ensure that all planning related to the dualling of Brackenfell Boulevard is shared and communicated.
“This collaboration will help ensure that Sanral has all the necessary details to make the final decision about the future bridge design.
“It is still intended to upgrade Brackenfell Boulevard in phases and tie into the bridge widening that Sanral is proposing once budget is available and in this way, in time, the developments contributing to additional traffic will play a role in supporting incremental upgrades to address the congestion being experienced.”
He added that the City of Cape Town has commenced with the planning of the dualling of Brackenfell Boulevard between De Bron Road and Frans Conradie Drive, saying the project is currently funded, outside the Congestion Relief Programme, but from a major developer in the area and offset against Development Contributions due for upgrades to Class 2 and 3 arterials.
He pointed out that Brackenfell Boulevard, where it crosses the N1, falls within the ambit of Sanral’s responsibilities.
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