The temporary pedestrian bridge will serve residents until completion of a new landmark structure between the historically divided suburbs of Alexandra and Sandton.
The old pedestrian bridge over the M1 bites the dustOut with the old … the old pedestrian bridge bites the dust. SEE GALLERY BELOW FOR MORE IMAGES.Motorists travelling to work on the M1 passing between Sandton and Alexandra on Monday were surprised to see a new bridge that hadn’t been there when they headed home on Friday – and empty space where an old bridge had stood for decades.
Over the weekend, contractors worked flat out to erect a new, temporary pedestrian bridge and demolish the old one between the Marlboro and Greyston Drive offramps of Africa’s busiest highway.
How it all went down – view gallery below
The temporary bridge will serve Alexandra residents until completion of a R130-million cycling-pedestrian bridge, currently being built over the M1 alongside the Greyston interchange, that will permanently alter the skyline for M1 north traffic.
The new pedestrian-cycling bridge currently under constructionAnd in with the new: artist’s impression of the new pedestrian-cycling bridge currently under construction. SEE GALLERY BELOW FOR MORE IMAGES.The landmark bridge will form part of a 5-kilometre pedestrian and cycling pathway between Alexandra and Sandton and, together with the phase 1C extension of Rea Vaya’s bus rapid transit (BRT) network, will open up a new Corridor of Freedom between the historically divided suburbs.
The weekend operation began in earnest on Saturday night. With the traffic diverted onto the southbound lanes of the M1, the demolishers proceeded to bring down the half of old bridge over the northbound lanes, while the parallel section of the temporary bridge was lowered into place.
Once this was complete – in the early hours of Sunday morning, when the 24-seven highway was at its relative quietest – the traffic was re-diverted onto the northbound side, and the bridge collapsing/erecting process was repeated on the southbound side.
By Sunday afternoon, normal traffic flow was fully restored, the old bridge was no more, and final work on securing the new bridge was under way.
Construction of the new pedestrian-cycling bridge, which is being facilitated by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), began on 1 March and is due to be completed by October 2016.