Contest #627: the Foreshore Freeway Bridge on Cape Town, South Africa

Construction started on the Foreshore Freeway Bridge in Cape Town in 1970, but stalled in 1977 and has not resumed. All that is there are two sections – a ramp up in the west and what is now a parking garage in the east. Several urban legends have surfaced over the years about the reasons why it was never finished. One is that the design team had made a calculation error resulting in the two ends failing to link up. Another was that construction was halted due to a disgruntled shop owner who refused to sell his property that stood where the flyover would pass. However, the official explanation to date is that the city had run out of money with traffic numbers at the time not justifying its continuation and the project had to be abandoned.

The hint referred to the vuvuzela during the 2010 World Cup Soccer tournament hosted by South Africa. The world’s largest (35 m (114.83 ft)) operational vuvuzela sponsored by Hyundai was mounted on the western side and meant to sound at the start of each game. The city council, however, decided not to use it as the jarring sound and volume level was a cause of concern. When one of your humble contest moderators read that, this reveal took a quick turn.

See, the moderator in question **HATES** vuvuzelas with a white-hot passion. He refers them to as “loser soccer horns”. He is a big hockey fan, and when these abominations show up at the rink, he loses all enjoyment of the game (and his favorite team invariably starts to lose, or, at least, win by less of a margin). Were it up to him, they would all be thrown into the pit of hell (from contest #184). The fact that the creators of this awful thing never got to hear it sounded as planned brings him no end of joy. But we digress…

FORTY YEARS!?!?!??! That seems like an excessive construction delay, n’est ce pas?

Found despite no end in sight:

  • Martin de Bock
  • hhgygy
  • Phil Ower
  • Garfield
  • Paul Voestermans
  • Eloy Cano
  • Walter_V_R
  • David Kozina
  • Rob de Wolff
  • Lighthouse
  • Andreas Meister
  • Jean Noyau
  • Robin Giles

No-one after the hint.

2 Replies to “Contest #627: the Foreshore Freeway Bridge on Cape Town, South Africa”

  1. Oui. I’m learning Swedish now, so my French is slowing falling away.

    Je suis désolé *and* Jag är väldigt ledsen

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