Page 76 - Bulletin 13 2009

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During this era the railway and the car would vie for limited space in the narrow
corridor pinched between the high-water mark and private property boundaries. Until

the 1920s all elements fitted reasonably into the available space but competition for
space would become more intense during the expansion of both road and rail in the

1920s.

It is clear from the annual municipal minutes and photographs that Main Road during

this era remained a relatively narrow route, with kerbing and guttering confined to the
west or mountain-side. From 1903 there were first experiments with tar macadam, but

only on the side roads in parts of Muizenberg, and Main Road remained a gravelled or
metalled surface ie. built up of two layers of three-inch broken stone covered by two

layers of one-inch broken stone. No doubt the macadam was not yet tough enough to

withstand the cutting action of narrow iron wheels upon it.

And so a revolution of sorts took place in the appearance of the coastal road that joined

the settlements of the coastal strip: the municipal services were sunk below the roadway
or installed at intervals along it; the edges of the roadway were more strictly defined by

kerbs & channels in local stone, and the junction between public space and private
property was marked off by boundary walls, usually in dressed stone. The previous

informality of the road changed into a more formal, more regulated, and more built-up
corridor. These changes are shown in Figures 2.17 – 2.38.