A total of four routes has been planned, stretching 27.6km and costing R2.8 million per kilometre.
Executive director of the City of Johannesburg Transport Department’s Lisa Seftel said, “The costs are not that high bearing in mind it is over 20km. The costs include street lighting and CCTV cameras so [that] they are safe and can be effectively enforced,” she said.
Seftel explained that the cost of infrastructure construction for a 1km cycle lane was approximately R3 million and that cost included CCTV cameras, paving, relocation of services, road marking, street furniture, stormwater drainage and landscaping.
Seftel compared cycle lanes to that of a new road. According to her, a new road with two lanes going in one direction would cost approximately R5.95 million per kilometre. This price included surfacing, stormwater drainage and landscaping.
According to the roads agency’s spokesperson Bertha Peters-Scheepers, the rate per kilometre for the upgrading of 5m wide gravel road to surfaced road including design, stormwater reticulation and sidewalk paving is approximately R6.5 million.
“Whether the rate of R2.8 million per kilometre for a cycle lane is reasonable or not is difficult to assess however, the quoted cost does
not seem to be too excessive,” Scheepers said. Ward 117 councillor Tim Truluck confirmed that the City had budgeted R70 million for the construction of the cycle lanes, excluding the bridge to Sandton City. “The bridge to Sandton City will be built by user contributions,” Truluck said.
He said that the cycle routes would enable cyclists to ride from Rosebank to Sandton, Rosebank to Melrose Arch through Melrose and Birdhaven, past the Wanderers Gym area and on a loop from Rosebank to the zoo via Saxonwold, then to Parkview, Zoo Lake, Greenside, Parkhurst and, finally, onto the Braamfontein Spruit mountain bike trails at Victory Park. The return to Rosebank will be along Chester and Baker roads.
The lanes are in line with the City’s plan of embracing alternative modes of transport, Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Transport Christine Walters said at a conference earlier this year. “A seamless transport system where people can switch from Gautrain to the Metrobus or Rea Vaya, to taxis to cycling and walking, will significantly reduce the volume of private transport usage in the city,” said Walters.
Do you think that the cost of the cycle lanes is justifiable? Let us know by tweeting us @RK_Gazette
