Tours in Cape Town

Posts Tagged ‘BRT bus lanes’

The completed bus lanes between Boundary Road and Milner Road in Paarden Eiland

Yesterday I went out to take a good look at the bus lanes and to find out where they go to after the Boundary Road station and also what was finished and what was not.

This is what I found.

Driving from Boundary Road over the railway bridge travelling towards Cape Town along Marine Drive.

The station at Boundary road was not yet complete The BRT lanes on the railway bridge were not complete.

Once over the railway bridge the red concrete lanes are all in place and are being planted up with foliage to beautify the area.

The intersection at Milner Road where the bus lanes turn into Paarden Eiland

The intersection at Milner Road in Paarden Eiland is where the BRT lanes leave Marine Drive and make their way into Paarden Eiland.

If the construction of the BRT Lanes from Bayside Mall in Table View were to end at Milner road and be completed it would make a major difference to traffic along the Marine Drive and into town.

Construction through Paarden Eiland could continue in the backstreets out of our visitor’s view.

This however might not be necessary as most of the construction of the roads for the buses in Paarden Eiland is more or less complete.

The more or less completed bridge over the Salt River Canal

The bridge over Salt River canal is also nearing completion. Stations through Paarden Eiland are mainly incomplete and need finishing touches to finalise their construction.

Driving along the N1 into Cape Town I could not find where the BRT lanes crossed the N1 and also could not find them in the harbour area so I decided to follow the construction of the BRT lanes through Paarden Eiland all the way to the N1 to find out the secret.

The old Railway Bridge under the N1 with Table Mountain in the background

I was most surprised at what I found.

In the past there had been a railway line running through Paarden Eiland and the BRT lanes have been built where the line used to run. The secret of how the BRT lanes crossed the N1 was solved when I found the small tunnel under the N! which was previously used by trains to ge tinto the city.

I am not going to pursue this bus lane any longer except to say that it will work its way through Woodstaock and Salt River and join up with the Eastern Boulevard where it enters the city near the Civic Centre and Artscape on the Foreshore.

I would like to take my hat off to Cape Town motorists for putting up with all the delays, detours and traffic jams that they have faced during the construction of this buslane.

When its complete in a month or two it would all have been worthwhile.

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