Work starts on new mall road

THE development of Port Elizabeth's R1.7-billion Baywest Mall took another giant step towards being realised as construction of the R300-million new road network, which will ultimately link Sherwood and Rowallan Park, began.

The new Redhouse-Chelsea arterial road will link the mall to the N2 freeway and give motorists easy access to Sherwood's Walker Drive and Old Cape Road.

Construction company Basil Read was awarded the contract for the road network, which will include two carriageways, two bridges over the N2 and lanes to accommodate the IPTS buses.

The other two bridges will be over the Baakens River and overrare plant species on the southern side of the N2, close to Sherwood.

The project is being funded by the Baywest developers – Abacus Asset Management and Billion Group – the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The mall is set to open in March next year. "While the Baywest development is a private initiative, the developers have reached an agreement with the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and Sanral on a joint funding initiative which is based on proportional responsibility derived from various traffic impact analyses," Baywest managing director Gavin Blows said.

"The NMBM is contributing about 15% of the budgeted costs of the road network upgrade.

"This upgrade will benefit current local residents by linking the suburbs of Sherwood with Rowallan Park via a new multilane interchange which will not only bridge the N2 but will provide on- and off-ramps.

"These new N2 access and egress points will relieve the traffic congestion problems currently being experienced in peak hours and are expected to stimulate growth in these suburbs," Blows said.

Although the on- and off-ramps will be ready by the time the mall opens in March, the rest of the network – the Cape Road, Walker Drive connection – is due to be completed by September next year.

About 30% of the Baywest City site has been allocated for environmental preservation and will not be developed at all. According to Aecom engineer on the project Gerrie Albertyn, construction of the road network is specifically designed to protect environmentally sensitive areas.

"There will be a bridge to the southern side of the N2 which will be built specifically to protect the environmentally sensitive cyclopia plant species, which are situated in a wetland area," Albertyn said. "There will also be another structure built to elevate the road in order to protect a rare frog species."

Sanral's Southern Regions construction manager, Michael Kaiser, said two environmental control officers would ensure that the construction did not damage the environment.

"The more sensitive areas will be fenced off completely," Kaiser said.