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Unfinished Business
Event 4 June 2019
Ephemera from the Unfinished Business panel discussion on A4’s top floor. A topdown image of the Foreshore Freeway in Cape Town with some graphic overlays.
Ephemera: The Foreshore Freeway, Cape Town, 2019. Google Earth.
Title Unfinished Business Dates 4 June 2019 Location Top Floor Tagline A panel discussion re-imagines the use of the Foreshore Freeway in Cape Town. Credits

Panelists:
Guy Briggs
Bidder on Foreshore Freeway City of Cape Town tender
dhk: Principal

Caroline Sohie
Planning Specialist
University of KULeuven: Faculty of Architecture

Dave Southwood
Artist and photographer

Robert Silke
Preferred Bidder on Foreshore Freeway City of Cape Town tender
Robert Silke&Partners: Director

Mark Noble
Neighbouring Landowner
V&A Waterfront: Development Director

Dr. Lisa Kane
Academic researcher and writer
University of Cape Town: Honorary Research Associate at the Centre for Transport Studies

Moderator:
Leszek Dobrovolsky
Infrastructure specialist
Instinct: Director

Convenor:
Instinct, London

In 2016, the City of Cape Town launched a two-stage competition calling for ideas and projects to transform eleven hectares of Cape Town CBD blight – a series of uncompleted elevated highway viaducts.

Several ambitious, radical and innovative proposals were submitted, and a shortlist of six consortia entered a final round of submissions, interviews and financial analysis.

Despite a winner being announced, and against a backdrop of City of Cape Town maladministration and corruption, the entire tender process was cancelled. A significant opportunity to enable a private sector game-changer, relieve traffic congestion, and provide real social transformation through affordable housing had been lost.

The moderated panel discussion asks questions about structure and public sector governance. What can be learnt about how to devise, create and deliver practical initiatives and projects in a volatile climate?

The discussion brings together representatives from Foreshore Freeway consortia and shortlisted proposals, with surrounding landowners. Evidence-based examples of projects that have been delivered (despite political and economic constraints and limitations in governance) are presented by practitioners and academics in the Global South.

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