The N21 is a proposed national route in the

City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town (; ) is a Metropolitan municipality (South Africa), metropolitan municipality that forms the metropolitan municipality (South Africa), local government of Cape Town and surrounding areas. As of 2022 it has a population of ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is also known as the Peninsula Expressway

ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducin ...

. Once complete, it will link the northern suburbs on the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

seaboard (

Melkbosstrand Melkbosstrand (Afrikaans for " Milkbush beach") is a coastal town located on the South West Coast of South Africa, 30 km north of Cape Town. It forms part of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, the municipality governing Cape ...

Bloubergstrand Bloubergstrand is a seaside suburb of the City of Cape Town, South Africa, along the shores of Table Bay, due north of the city centre of Cape Town. The name Bloubergstrand literally means "blue mountain beach" in Afrikaans, and is derived ...

) with the southern suburbs on

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans: ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarc ...

(

Muizenberg Muizenberg ( , Dutch for 'mice mountain') is a beach-side town in the Western Cape, South Africa. It is situated where the shore of the Cape Peninsula curves round to the east on the False Bay coast. It is considered to be the main surfing spo ...

). The R300 freeway is entirely part of the proposed route (the freeway will be extended at both ends).

Background

Proposed route

The proposed freeway will include sections of the existing R300 freeway and will be

toll Toll may refer to: Transportation * Toll (fee) a fee charged for the use of a road or waterway ** Toll road, a type of road which for which payment is required for passage ** Road pricing, the modern practice of charging for road use ** Road to ...

ed. The name of the consortium involved in the construction of the Expressway is "Penway", short for Peninsula Expressway. The Penway has also become the local nickname for the Expressway. Explosive growth of the Cape Town metropolitan area, especially in terms of local and

international tourism International tourism is tourism that crosses national borders. Globalization has made tourism a popular global leisure activity. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual ...

, the

wine industry Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented fruit. Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made from grapes, and the term "wine" generally refers ...

, and the

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production company, production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre- ...

, has pushed the traffic situation to a critical point.

Environment

A number of

environmental impact Environmental issues are disruptions in the usual function of ecosystems. Further, these issues can be caused by humans ( human impact on the environment) or they can be natural. These issues are considered serious when the ecosystem cannot reco ...

studies have been done, to determine whether new sections of the freeway will upset the delicate

ecological Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

systems in the Cape Town area. New sections will run south of the N2 towards

Zeekoevlei Zeekoevlei is a freshwater lake in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. The lake is in area. Its name means hippopotamus pond or lake, from the Afrikaans words ''seekoei'' (literally "sea cow") and ''vlei A vlei (; ) is a shall ...

, which is a

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

area, and north of the N1, up to the area near

Projects

Project R300

During the 1990s and 2000s, the national road agency and

Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works The Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works is a department of the Government of the Western Cape. It is responsible for the development of the transport system in the Western Cape province of South Africa, and for constructing and ...

began the final construction of the R300, the first section of the highway.

Project N21

The Peninsula Expressway will have junctions with three National Roads, the N1, the N2, and the N7 as well as the M3 and the M5 which are

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

metropolitan freeways. In August 2022 the

announced the launch of an

environmental impact assessment Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental impact, environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the te ...

for the extension of the

R300 The R300 GPU, introduced in August 2002 and developed by ATI Technologies, is its third generation of GPU used in ''Radeon'' graphics cards. This GPU features 3D acceleration based upon Direct3D 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0, a major improvement in featur ...

from its current terminus at the N1 northwards to the R302 (Wellington Road).

Opposition

The project to extend the R300 has been opposed by some members of society due to them wanting to preserve some of the areas in which the proposed road is meant to pass (such as wetlands and sanctuaries). The

government along with the

Government of the Western Cape The Western Cape province of South Africa is governed in a parliamentary system in which the people elect the Provincial Parliament, and the parliament elects the Premier as head of the executive. The Premier leads a cabinet of provincial mini ...

are also against the plan to make the freeway a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and ...

References

{{Reflist Roads in Cape Town Proposed roads Proposed transport infrastructure in South Africa National routes in South Africa