Cape Town’s Foreshore freeway strangles the city and cuts it (and its people) off from the Port and water’s edge. With a comparison to San Francisco’s Embarcadero, Gareth Pearson questions what would happen if we did away with the Foreshore section of Nelson Mandela Boulevard altogether.
When Capetonians talk about the freeway along the Foreshore, there’s a good chance it involves a joke about the mysterious unfinished sections. It’s not the unfinished sections that I care about, it’s the entire thing.
The footprint of the freeway as well as the land in between each section is wasted, restricting the development of this lifeless area of the city. There have been a number of interventions proposed, as mentioned some time back in a post by Andrew Boraine. More recently, the City of Cape Town, is proposing a 3 storey parking building to sit between the freeways, to support a new tower, as part of the Convention Centre expansion.
There is often talk of sinking the freeway below ground, a monstrous project not disimilar to Boston’s Big Dig. Sure, this is an option, as with any project it has its advantages and disadvantages. But what if the freeway was removed entirely? What if it was replaced with a tree-lined boulevard that accommodates public transport, bicycling, and walking?
It’s very easy to quickly shut this idea down as one visualizes the hoards of single-occupant vehicles trying to enter the city. How will motorists effortlessly get to the bottom of Buitengracht Street and on to other parts of the city? The big question here is whether the city would cope with a lower-capacity roadway in place of the freeway.
Enter The Embarcadero, San Francisco’s boulevard that runs along the water’s edge. The roadway is lined with trees, and is shared by trolley cars, bicyclers, pedestrians, and motorists. This was once the route of a double-decker freeway, that like Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela Boulevard, cut off the city from the water’s edge.
The earthquake that shook the city in 1989 forced the closure of this vital artery into San Francisco. One would think that the sudden closure would have caused havoc, and that it would have needed to be repaired and reopened. The city soon realised that it was coping just fine as citizens adapted to the situation. The damaged freeway was removed to create the inviting boulevard that is there today.
San Francisco’s Ferry Building strangled by the Embarcadero freeway before the 1989 earthquake that led to its closure.
The Embarcadero today – a tree-lined boulevard that invites citizens to the restored Ferry Building and the water’s edge.
Gareth Pearson
Latest posts by Gareth Pearson (see all)
- The Rise and Fall of Suburbia – December 20, 2012
- The wrong reasons for planting pine trees on the Grand Parade – December 20, 2012
- Jane Jacobs: Neighbourhoods in Action – December 19, 2012
- Placemaking & Seattle – December 19, 2012
- Do our roads promote reckless driving? – December 17, 2012
