Following this post and several (or more) attempts to get some sort of clarity on what exactly was going to be done to the M3 in Cape Town from our elected representative, I finally got an email from Michelle Talliard. Michelle is the Senior Secretary to the Director : Asset Management & Maintenance, no less.
Here’s the skinner:
The road works have begun but they are being done outside of peak hours. The inbound section is being doing between 09h30 and 16h30 and the outbound section will be done between 08h30 and 15h00. The Stop/Go is incorrect and will be removed. There will only be single lane closures in each direction. The project manager will follow up on the incorrect signage.
The works on the M3 will happen between the Trovato link off ramp and the Klaasens Road Bridge on both carriageways and between Bishopscourt Drive and Boshof Avenue on the inbound carriageway only.
Currently work is taking place on the inbound carriageway between the Klaasens Road Bridge and the Trovato Link off ramp. Minor works are also taking place on the shoulder between Bishops Court Drive and Paradise Road, but these are not disrupting traffic at the moment.
That first bit – between the Trovato link off ramp and the Klaasens Road Bridge on both carriageways – is not actually a lot of road, as far as I can work out. Basically just over the brow of the Edinburgh Drive hill to the Chart Farm as you’re heading out of town. Still, take away one of the two lanes in either direction and it’s going to mean delays.
The second one – between Bishopscourt Drive and Boshof Avenue on the inbound carriageway only – is longer, but mildly confusing in that neither of those two roads actually intersect with the M3. But I think that they mean between the first set and last set of robots that you encounter on your way into town each morning.
Despite their efforts to keep it out of peak hours, it’s going to make daytime traveling a nightmare, so Rhodes Drive past Kirstenbosch would seem to be the obvious detour for inbound traffic and “something through Claremont and Kenilworth” for stuff heading south. Good luck with that one.
Lastly, if you’ve driven up Edinburgh Drive away from the city recently, you’ll have enjoyed the near-authentic off-road experience twixt Struben Road and the footbridge at the top of the hill. But it would appear that there is to be no rehabilitation work done to this bit of road, despite the fact they will be rehabilitating all around it.
I don’t make the rules.
