BRT and Upgradings Citichat 5 September 2008

CITICHAT 35/2008 - 5 September 2008

Inner City Upgrading Grows Apace - 1

Roll on 2010! The inner city is getting more and more like a gigantic building site and I don’t see much respite for the next two years as the days count down and construction activity becomes more frenetic. I tried to do a bit of a forecast way back in May 2004 of what we might be able to expect regarding the impact of 2010 on the inner city (Citichat 16/2004). I quoted from some research by G.M.P.Swann of the Manchester Business School, University of Manchester who stated that four broad categories of benefits that can in principle result from large scale events of the 2010 type are;

1. new sports facilities and associated amenities built for the event

2. the short-term economic stimulus stemming from new construction and other investment in the advance of the event, and visitor spending during the event

3. the marketing opportunity to attract new business and promote tourism

4. urban redevelopment.

What wasn’t spelt out was the activity and disruption that is needed to get there! Items 1, most of 2 and 4 are certainly benefits that the country and ourselves, as one of the host cities, are and will continue to enjoy. I haven’t seen much in the way of serious marketing but maybe you have to be outside of the country to experience that.

In so far as 4 is concerned, urban redevelopment, some may argue that all the initiatives now under way would have happened anyway – I doubt it very much for 2010 has acted as a giant accelerator or catalyst that has removed many “wish” list initiatives off the shelves and changed them into reality.

Probably the single biggest intervention that is and will continue to impact on the inner city, both in its implementation and in its final form, is the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system. The final routing has at last been agreed and various roads are being well and truly ripped up and redone to accommodate the dedicated lanes for the new buses. The new buses’ axle loads are higher than anything we currently have so it does mean stripping existing road surfaces and their layered bases and providing a more dense and deeper base than we have at the moment. Otherwise the surface will only last five years. Sections that are under construction at present are Bertrams Road from its intersection with Bezuidenhout through to when it becomes Charlton and then Saratoga. A section continuing Saratoga along Wolmarans is due to start shortly. This will link to the section currently under construction down Troye alongside Joubert Park which continues south until it intersects with Commisioner and Market. Early next year the loop will be closed by the linkage of Market and Bezuidenhout which in turn will tie into Bertrams Road.

Edith Cavell is also under construction and Smit & Wolmarans Streets are to start quite shortly. The contract for the Market, Commissioner, Twist and Troye Street sections have been awarded and the contractor actually moved onto site earlier this week. Expect some pretty rough traffic situations in Market and Commissioner as each will be reduced to half the number of existing lanes whilst the contractors work on the other half. Both streets take a heavy volume of traffic as well as having a large volume crossing them. The good news is that they should be completed during the first quarter of next year in time for the Confederations Cup. There is a loop planned around Hoofd, Joubert Street Extension and Loveday Street Extension (in other words around the Metro Centre) which has been planned and tendered This will connect to the Commissioner/Market Loop via Rissik Street. A large contract has been let for some 26 BRT stations within the Inner City that will partly will be prefabricated off site – the prototype for the BRT station is already being built next to Joubert Park.

Outside of the Inner City, some of the BRT roadways around Nasrec have been completed and will ultimately connect to Anderson Street and into Commissioner and Market whilst Main Reef Road to Portland/Perth will link into Empire/Jan Smuts. At Nasrec the pedestrian promenade and bridges connecting to the World Cup Stadium are also in progress. The BRT will also go down Oxford Street, so Rosebank will have more than its fair share of disruption. Oh well, as they say, no gain without pain!

The Gautrain Station, north of Park Station appears to be well advanced whilst work is progressing on the upgrading of the Doornfontein station and surrounds.

The next Station east of the Doornfontein Station is the Ellis Park Station which sits at the apex of a triangle with Sivewright as one of the sides and Lower Railway Station as the other and Market Street the base. This area contained some really dodgy industrial and residential buildings in the centre of which was a taxi rank. This was quite a rough area – an informal butcher used to slaughter cows on the pavement and sell the meat. The whole area has been transformed – the buildings have been bought by AFHCO who are retaining both industrial and residential uses but on a properly managed basis and the taxi rank, known as Transport Square, has been rebuilt and provides a magnificent public space. Some mosaic work on buildings and pavements, a half sized volleyball court for off-duty drivers and some unique artwork. The artist, Andrew Lindsay, has provided a number of groups of concrete cows, life size, lazing in the sun and a favourite destination for the local kids. They are painted, some covered in mosaics and, whilst reminding the locals of the Informal Butcher, are a wonderful touch to what has become a lovely space. Another public art piece worthy of a close look is the ‘waterfall’ on the rock cliff of Pullinger’s Kop opposite the Windybrow. All the refurbed parks also have new public art.

Talking of art and refurbishment, I mentioned some time ago the recent purchase of the old DF Corlett yard and offices which is directly opposite the eastern end of Jewel City on the block Berea, Fox and Marshall. Went to have a look how they were getting on this week and this is going to be a superb addition not just to the East side of the inner city but to Joeys itself. The 1911 buildings with their high ceilings are being turned into sectional title office/studio space for the creative industries. Currently constructing a courtyard to be planted with grass, olive and lemon trees it will have a high quality mediterranean restaurant with bar areas, an outdoor cinema, art bookstores and studios. One large single volume building in the complex has been let to William Kentridge. Really exciting stuff in an otherwise gritty part of the city – watch the area raise the interest level and fresh investment!

Hillbrow has had a massive urban environment upgrade with some 234 city blocks having pavements replaced, new improved street lighting standards and street furniture, landscaping, paving and litter bins Two practical problems encountered with the new design litter bins is that the single stem swing bin can evidently be pushed over quite easily; whilst the two legged swing bin is more sturdy but the perforated drum of the bin is ideal for informal traders to cook on! We will undoubtedly see a further change in bin design! About to be tackled are the ‘sanitary lanes’ in Hillbrow, clearly more correctly named ‘unsanitary lanes’! The big problem with all this urban environment upgrading is management and the upgrading of the lanes simply won’t be fully carried through all the 77 that exist if someone or some body doesn’t take responsibility for them A reader made the following comment regarding the management of the overall Hillbrow upgrade “The city have gone all the way to invest more than R100 million towards upgrading Hillbrow and Yeoville but over the weekend I saw hawkers back on the new nicely decorated pavements and as per norm they threw rubbish everywhere even though there are now adequate rubbish bins around. I do agree with the idea of a CID but what are the metro police for? Aren’t they supposed to make sure that the by-laws are abided by? They should be walking on the streets of Hillbrow and Yeoville to make sure that these people sell their stuff on their hawker dedicated stalls. How are we expecting to attract investments while we mess up areas like Hillbrow in which the upgrade projects haven’t been even completed?

If you listen to 702, you will realise that people do not approve of metro police because they are not even helping in fighting the likes of smash-and-grab as they leave guys standing in our intersections pretending to be sellers while their intentions are different”.

I must say it has been a particular bleat of mine for years, that urban upgrading is not merely throwing money at an area, it is actually the maintenance and management that will make it sustainable. It is no secret that little private sector investment is provided towards public sector upgrades unless a plan is in place for maintenance and management via a CID or other initiative. That’s why areas such as Ekhaya and will work in Hillbrow and berea because there are responsible community leaders to co-ordinate and ensure that the maintenance and management are provided.

Anyway back to ‘Jobuild’ -

In Hillbrow. Berea and Yeoville in addition to the public environment upgrading, five city parks have been upgraded and refurbished and two new public toilet blocks have been built. I visited some of the parks a week back and the most popular addition has been 5-a-side soccer pitches which are finished with astro turf. They were all drawing large crowds of spectators and players and I hear that this is not just on weekends! The old Governor’s House opposite the east end of the Fort was seriously damaged in a fire some months back and this Heritage Building is currently being restored as a community facility. The Hillbrow Tower will shortly look well and truly pregnant when the large 2010 soccer ball is attached around the tower. The Quartz Street market is being rebuilt. Public environment upgrades are also taking place in Yeoville, Doornfontein, New Doornfontein around Jewel City and the Fashion District precincts but we’ll pick up the rest of the inner city next week.

Till then, have a great weekend, regards, neil