The City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee has approved a request from the Urban Mobility Directorate for more funding to alleviate congestion on Cape Town’s road network.
All-in-all, the additional funding amounts to approximately R203,5 million, which will be available over the next three financial years ending 30 June 2025, should Council also approve this request at its meeting at the end of this month.
This amount excludes the R72,8 million that will be available in the form of development contributions from private sector developers during this time.
‘Council made available R750 million in 2015 for a Congestion Relief Programme to address congestion in the Blaauwberg, Kuils River and Kommetjie areas. However, we need more funding for more projects to address congestion on our road network. Now that the Mayoral Committee has approved this request, we will approach Council by the end of April for their approval as well,’ said Councillor Rob Quintas, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility.
Should Council approve this request, the total amount budgeted on congestion relief projects would be R953,5 million – nearly a billion rand – over a period of ten years.
It is the City’s intention to expand the capacity of its existing road network while efforts are under way to provide more and reliable public transport services to commuters. The Congestion Relief Programme focuses on projects that will reduce the peak hour period – this is the time commuters spend on the road during the morning and afternoon driving to and from work.
‘Our road network must enable the movement of people and goods and services. Congestion impedes on our productivity, and comes at a great cost to commuters in terms of time spent on the road and money for fuel, over and above the environmental harm through carbon emissions. It is thus important that we build more capacity – be it additional lanes or missing road links – to support economic activity and economic growth to stimulate job creation. This is pivotal in our efforts to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and in playing our part in combatting climate change,’ said Councillor Quintas.
Another report with details about the specific congestion relief projects and the status of ongoing projects will be submitted to Council in the latter part of this year.
