08-05-2025
A bridge too far: Cape Town lacks funds to finish iconic landmark on the Foreshore
The City of Cape Town says it lacks funds to complete the iconic unfinished Foreshore freeway bridge in the CBD.
This was revealed during a public meeting on the draft Cape Town CBD Local Spatial Development Framework Plan.
The City said a feasibility study is under way but added budget funding for the bridge was unviable.
The City of Cape Town says it does not have funds to finish the iconic Foreshore bridge.
This emerged during a public meeting on Wednesday afternoon for a draft of the Cape Town CBD Local Spatial Development Framework Plan (LSDF).
The draft of the City's LSDF aims to guide future spatial planning and development of the CBD - one of Cape Town's busiest economic hubs.
It proposes development guidelines for eight demarcated precincts: De Waterkant, the convention district, mid-city, Company's Garden, East Foreshore, District Six, Cape Town station and Lower Gardens.
While the City confirmed a feasibility study was under way for the freeway bridge, it said its budget funding for such a project was not viable.
The unfinished bridge has become a popular location for movies and advertisements and a home for people experiencing homelessness.
Its design started in the 1960s, and construction began in the 1970s, but due to budget constraints, it halted in 1977.
During the meeting, Annelise de Bruin from Spatial Planning and Urban Growth Management at the City said: 'The feasibility study is an in-house project to figure out what do we do with the freeways and what do you do with the land under the Foreshore freeway.'
According to the LSDF plan, the scope of the feasibility study will focus on urban design concept, linkages, financing and public participation.
'The Foreshore internal work will be completed around June this year, and from there on, the city manager will decide to what extent he goes into a public consultation period, and if that is complete, there will be further discussions about the legal statutory processes,' De Bruin said.
'At the moment, we do not have a definitive answer on the feasibility or even if it's feasible for the City to complete the bridge or what we should do with the freeways because the City does not have this kind of money to complete the freeways, but we have to think of long-term mobility in the context of the vision of the CBD,' she added.
The City's urban designer and professional architect, Anees Arnold, said: 'The LSDF is supposed to provide certainty to developers or those who want to develop in the city potentially … and how certain areas respond to the broader context and the character area where it sits.'
