October 8 2026 16:10
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
One of Cape Town’s most famous piece of unfinished business is finally set to be completed. Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has unveiled the City’s plans to finish the Foreshore’s incomplete elevated freeways, almost 50 years after construction stopped in 1977.
The Foreshore Precinct Project will see the so-called “bridge to nowhere” transformed into a new link bridge, an underground tunnel and a waterfront promenade. More importantly for the property sector, it will release about 15 hectares of land around the existing highways for a new mixed-use neighbourhood — some of the last vacant land left in the CBD.
Speaking on one of the unfinished bridges on 2 October, Hill-Lewis said the City was “getting the ball rolling on finishing some 50-year-old unfinished business”. He said the project would ease congestion and unlock investment, jobs and more affordable homes.
A landmark half a century in the making
The Foreshore Freeway Scheme was conceived in the late 1960s, and construction of the elevated highways began in the early 1970s. Work halted in 1977 when the money ran out, leaving the bridges ending abruptly in mid-air.
Over the decades, the unfinished bridges have become one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks, featuring in films, advertisements and countless urban legends about why they were never completed.
But they have also had a real cost. The land under and around the viaducts has been reserved for the eventual completion of the freeway scheme, which means it has remained vacant or underused for more than half a century. The highways have also created a physical barrier between the CBD and the harbour.
The City’s plan aims to provide certainty over the future of the road scheme and release this “sterilised” land for development.
How the project will work
The City intends to carry out the project in two phases, keeping the existing freeways open throughout to avoid gridlock.
In the first phase, a new bridge will be built over Buitengracht Street and the inbound elevated freeway will be widened, linking it directly to Helen Suzman Boulevard. Traffic heading from the Foreshore towards Green Point, Sea Point and the Atlantic Seaboard will effectively bypass the CBD.
Phase one also includes:
- Two additional inbound lanes on the freeways
- A new elevated outbound ramp connecting Buitengracht over Dock Road to the existing outbound freeway
- Turning FW de Klerk Boulevard into a pedestrian-oriented street
- A new canal linking Buitengracht Park to the V&A Waterfront canal
- A new public park beneath the Buitengracht link bridge
- Bus lanes across Buitengracht
- Three land parcels released for a new residential area
In the second phase, a new outbound tunnel will be built on vacant land between the port and Customs House, running alongside Duncan Road to connect with the N1 and N2. The existing outbound elevated viaduct will then be demolished, making way for a promenade, parks and public spaces along the harbour edge, and freeing up all the remaining land parcels for development.
The City is in talks with Transnet about the port land needed for the tunnel.
A long-term timeline
This is a long-term project, and investors should not expect cranes on the Foreshore any time soon.
The City says construction of phase one will start during the next term of council. Phase two, the larger part of the project, is expected to run until 2040. While the bridges and tunnel will take most of the next decade to build, the new neighbourhood will continue to develop well beyond that, with the City describing the project as unlocking growth for the next two to three decades.
Before construction can begin, the proposals must go through public consultation, road scheme amendments, heritage impact assessments and other statutory processes. Final designs then need to be turned into detailed engineering designs before procurement can start.
The City has launched a dedicated website, foreshore.capetown, where residents can view the proposals and register for updates on public participation.
No cost estimate has yet been published, and the plan has already drawn criticism from a township development council, which argued that the money would be better spent on service delivery.
Why it matters for property
For the property sector, the most significant part of the announcement is not the bridge itself but the land it frees up.
The Cape Town CBD and Foreshore have seen strong residential demand in recent years, driven by semigration, young professionals wanting to live close to work and amenities, and the conversion of older office buildings into apartments. But the supply of well-located land is extremely limited, hemmed in by the mountain, the sea and existing infrastructure.
A new 15ha neighbourhood with walkable streets, affordable housing and a harbour-edge promenade could add meaningful residential and commercial supply to the inner city over time. The City has specifically flagged affordable housing as part of the mix, which will be welcomed given Cape Town’s affordability challenges.
The project should also benefit surrounding property. Better traffic flow between the Foreshore and the Atlantic Seaboard, a reconnected waterfront and new public spaces are likely to support values and leasing demand in the Foreshore, De Waterkant, Green Point and the V&A Waterfront area, as well as encourage further office-to-residential conversions in the CBD.
There is also an opportunity for developers. As the land parcels are released in stages, the City is likely to bring them to market through land release processes and partnerships with the private sector, creating some of the most significant new development sites the CBD has seen in decades.
Part of a bigger push
Hill-Lewis said Cape Town had not seen major public road and transport upgrades of this scale since before the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The Foreshore project comes alongside the 42km expansion of the MyCiTi bus network to Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain, which is already under construction.
Together, the projects signal a City government that is prepared to invest in big infrastructure to support growth — something the property sector has long called for.
The Foreshore bridges have been a symbol of stalled ambition for almost 50 years. If the City can deliver this plan, they may yet become a symbol of something very different: a reconnected, denser and more liveable city centre.
alistair@propertyflash.co.za
