[imagesource: David Ritchie]

You know, that bridge.

The photo above is an old one, but that doesn’t really matter because there hasn’t been much movement in terms of completing what has long been dubbed Cape Town’s ‘unfinished bridge’.

There was talk in 2016, and again in 2017, but it won’t be a simple project to complete.

Nor will it be cheap, with a figure recently released by Transport minister Fikile Mbalula. I doubt he knows how much it costs to fill in a pothole, let alone undertake a mammoth construction effort, but he wouldn’t have been trusted with crunching the numbers.

BusinessTech reports:

Responding to a recent parliamentary Q&A, Mbalula said the Foreshore Freeway is a City road and the original plan was to implement it in phases.

Image: Marvin Charles

…the city being able to afford the completion of the freeway has been a ‘challenge’, Mbalula said. He added that the current predicted cost of completing the Foreshore Freeway is in the order of R1.8 billion.

R1,808 billion to be exact. Sheesh, that is quite a hefty bill.

Also, you’d only be seeing the fruits of that expenditure way, way down the line. Mbalula once more:

“The anticipated duration of the completion of the Foreshore Freeway project is nine years including the review of the conceptual design, detailed design, construction tender documents preparation as well as construction. The earliest the Foreshore Freeway could be completed and open to the public would be in the 2030/2031 city financial year provided budget is secured timeously.”

At least all the film and advertising shoots have another eight years or so to get their fix.

In 1977, due to budget constraints in city expenditure, work on the bridge ceased.

[source:bustech]