Page 41 - Bulletin 23- 2020

37

developers, undertook to radically improve the conditions and, in particular, to leave the CCC
with a situation where they could adequately control the waterweed and manage the water

quality.

The Second Stage of the project, which was not built, was to the east of Prince George Drive
and was centred around the new ocean harbour linking to False Bay. The plan was to include

a golf-course, airstrip and many other commercial facilities. A high-level bridge on Prince
George Drive was to be built to allow masted boats to transit between the harbour and the

housing around Sandvlei. The canal water depth throughout was to be adequate to
accommodate keel boats. (Figs. 2.6 – 2.9).

The Second Stage foundered because it depended on National Government funding of the

ocean harbour and breakwater which were estimated to cost at least R17 million at that time.
By mid-1975 it was clear that this would not be forthcoming and plans for development east

of Prince George Drive were abandoned.

This paper gives background on the First Stage of the planned development, all of which is to

the west of Prince George Drive. It describes major features of what was planned for
Sandvlei and gives some details of how the work was implemented.

The author of this paper was responsible for the water-orientated elements and much of the
work described. He worked on the project as a Civil Engineer with Hill Kaplan Scott and

Partners, Consulting Engineers, from 1970 until the opening of the first residential area,

Extension I, at the end of 1974. Peter Heydenrych, also a Civil Engineer and a keen sailor,
was responsible for the design and construction of the township services including the roads

and drainage. He dealt with the construction issues in the residential areas.

Investigations and Planning

When I first became involved in the project, I joined a team of more than a dozen South
African and overseas consultants who had already been commissioned by Anglo American.

Investigations were at an extremely high technical level and reports were being received on
the local ecology, mapping, coastal processes and hydrology. There were later studies on

37