Citichat January 2007

26 January 2007



2010 and all that hype!



Up front let me state that I am an ardent 2010 supporter! I have seen what such major events can do for a city and I say, bring ‘em on! I think it will be a great event for South Africa and for Jozi. The benefits to the metropole will be in realizing both new and enhanced infrastructure and the fact that the event will act as a catalyst to get projects implemented that have been stagnating on the drawing board for years. I must admit however having experienced growing concerns regarding our tardiness in preparing for the event which leaves a relatively short period to do a mountain of work and, lately on the reported cost overruns for many of the stadia.



The headline of the Business Day of 24th January screamed “Cities warn of rocketing costs of 2010 stadiums.” The body of the story states that “it emerged in public hearings of Parliament’s sport and recreation committee yesterday that most of the host cities were experiencing shortfalls due to expenditure estimates that had grown because of inflation, the exchange rate and rising input costs.” (My underlining). I don’t buy that – we have lived in an inflationary situation for years – we’ve known that the stadia are going to be built in a time of extreme shortages and an overheated construction industry – all such issues should have been allowed for. Whilst fluctuating exchange rates are almost impossible to provide for, the proportion of imported materials surely isn’t that great



According to the report, Cape Town had budgeted on R2.5 billion but the preferred bidder “had placed the cost at R3.7bn”. Durban is facing a funding gap of R600 million, Nelson Mandela of R262 million and Polokwane R300 million. AND THE CONTRACTS HAVEN”T STARTED YET! In addition, I wonder who has done the maintenance sums.



But back to Jozi - this past week the Executive Mayor is reported to have announced that the refurbishment of the impressive calabash-shell design of the FNB stadium “would be completed seven months ahead of schedule”. Evidently the contract was due to have been completed by October 2009 and now will be finished by “March the 18th”. With the contract officially due to commence on the 1st Feb 2007 that means that the contract period will be 25 and-a-half months and a contract price of R1.5 billion calls for an average monthly turnover of R60 million! That is extraordinary! That is astonishing! That is unbelievable! That’s about R85 000.00 per hour for 24 hours per day and 30 days per month. Whew! One can only assume that the structural steel framework to be built around the stadium, the roof construction and coverings and the external calabash covering is extremely quick to erect yet incredibly expensive because actually increasing seating capacity from 70 000 to 94 000 certainly can only cost a fraction of the contract price.



I wasn’t able to find out the original contract price for the FNB Stadium, but Ellis Park, built 1981/2 cost R53 million. Allowing for inflation per Statistics SA, that R53 million would be about R650 million at today’s costs. With 60 000 seats the cost per seat would be about R11 000.00. The 24 000 extra seats at Soccer City will be costing about R63 000.00 per seat! I know that I’ve done a simplistic calculation, if one adjusts for the external cladding and roof, the cost per seat will be reduced, but wow!



Cape Town’s 68 000 seats will cost a whopping R3,7 billion or R55 000.00 per seat, Durban’s fancy King Senzangakhona Stadium XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.



I looked at some reasonably recently built stadiums in the UK for comparison purposes – would probably be more pertinent to examine those built in Germany for last year’s World Cup but I couldn’t find the details. The Millenium Stadium in Cardiff cost R1 8 bn in 1999 – R2.5 bn today – with 74 500 seats - that equates to R35 000 a seat (including the cost of an elaborate sliding roof). Max Boyce, the Welsh comedian and Welsh rugby aficionado explained the sliding roof: XXXX



Wembley Stadium, billed as the most expensive stadium ever built and as yet unfinished, cost well in excess of R100 000-00 per seat. So take heart and buy the appropriate construction company shares – I think they’re set to make a bundle!





From an inner city point of view, this is probably quite academic – the FNB Stadium is of no direct benefit to us. So where will the inner city really benefit?



According to media reports “some of the legacy projects include the replacement of public utilities such as outdoor refuse bins, benches, vendor stalls, play areas, pathways and ablution facilities.” It’s not clear from the report if this would be throughout the inner city or specifically focused on the precincts around the FNB Stadium and Ellis Park. In regard to Ellis Park, most of these items were newly installed for the All-Africa games held in XXXXX. Since then, zero maintenance, has resulted in all these amenities being almost totally destroyed – I hope someone out there isn’t just allowing capital budgets to be formulated without an adequate management and maintenance allowance!



Road upgrading aro Bertrams







To me, the real benefit will be in terms of public transportation and I included an overview of what is planned two weeks ago. Briefly it will see the introduction of a R2 billon Integrated Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System providing

• Exclusive right-of-way lanes

• Rapid boarding and alighting

• Pre-board fare collection and fare verification

• Enclosed stations that are safe and comfortable

• Clear route maps. Signage and information displays

• Automatic vehicle location technology

• Modal integration at stations and terminals

• Bus operators contracted to provide the services



Integrated into the BRT will be the Inner City Distribution System (ICDS) which will provide a cheap fare interlinked series of routes that will tke you from Doornfontein to Newtwn. In addition, an international Transit & Shopping Centre is being planned for the Park Station Precinct that will provide all the necessary connections between the Gautrain Station, Park Station, Metro Mall, Jack Mincer and Noord Street Long Distance Taxi Ranking.



Already approved by the Council, construction is due to start in the latter part of this year - the buses are planned to be in service before April 2009 providing a year of testing and bedding down before the first ball is kicked off. That timetable also looks extremely tight to me.



If I was Mayor, I’d employ the best project management consulting firm in the world to check the programmes and resource projections and report progress to me on a daily basis.



Other work that is already underway is Some contracts for work on the Ellis Park precinct were awarded late last year - one for creating a 'Gateway' at the intersection of Charlton Terrace and Stiemert Road and one for upgrading both Stiemert Road and Sivewright Avenue.



Nasrec precinct work started some time back last year with new paving and lighting to Nasrec Road West opposite the Stadium; and at the end of the year contracts were awarded for the northern and southern pavements to Randshow Road as well as the construction of the Soweto Highway eastern on-and-off ramps.



Bertrams















































Have a great weekend, cheers, neil



PS. Two January Walking Tours by the Parktown & Westcliff Heritage Trust:-



Saturday 20th January – “Braamfontein Cemetery” – “a grave affair – handkerchiefs and smelling salts will be de rigeur except for those whose interest in Jo’burg’s history outweighs their sense of decorum”



Meet at cemetery office inside gate in Graf Street at 2.00 pm – approx 3 hours – R50.00 for members and R70.00 for non-members – max 25



Saturday 27th January – “Parktown West Gardens & Homes” – “the tour combines architecture and horticulture with touches of history.”



Meet at the small park in Seymour Avenue, Parktown West at 2.00 pm – approx 3 hours – R50.00 for members and R70.00 for non-members – max 40.



Neil Fraser is a partner in Neil Fraser & Associates which trades as ‘Urban Inc.’ an urban consultancy dedicated to the revitalisation and regeneration of cities and of the inner city of Johannesburg in particular. He can be contacted at (083) 456 0242 or (011) 444-4895 or by e-mail at neil@urbaninc.co.za Views and opinions expressed in Citichat are not necessarily those of Urban Inc.



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