Chapman’s Peak Drive #4: History pt 2 (1914-1999)
This is the 4th in a series of 8 caches (incorporating 2 existing and 6 new ones) along this 9 km long, world famous, spectacular and award-winning cliff-edge mountain pass.
This Park and Grab cache, a small dispensing pot, is hidden on the eastern edge of this large shaded parking and picnic area, and one of the numerous wonderful viewpoints. See GC9KPCD CPD #3 for toll tips.
The cache was placed in recognition of an earlier cache nearby - NotBlonde & Villiagegoers’ GC3W2RD CWS-15 which was hidden on 3/9/12 and archived on 19/9/16 after 29 finds and 1 FP.
In 1914 preliminary surveys on the road got under way. Surveying the route was scary - the cliffs and ravines were steep, eroded and unstable, and sometimes the surveying party had to move on all fours to investigated the often-perpendicular terrain.
The route over the nek appeared to be no better; and the project appeared to be too expensive and a ‘mission impossible’. De Waal however, would not take no for an answer and ordered the ‘go ahead’ for a road along the cliffs which seemed to him to be the better option.
The road was cleverly planned with the road surface based on the solid and conveniently located erosional contact surface (nonconformity) between the 540 million year old (MYO) light grey granite of the Cape Granite Suite and the overlying sandstone and mudstone (Malmesbury series sediments) of the 485-455 MYO lower Table Mountain Group. The many roadside cuttings were carved out of these latter more workable rocks.
In 1915, with the use of convict labour supplied by the newly formed Union Government, construction began from the Hout Bay end, and in the following year work began from Noordhoek. The first portion of the road to the Lookout was opened in 1919.
This spectacular roadway took 7 years to complete, at a cost of ₤20,000 [this sounds incredibly cheap!]. The Hout Bay - Noordhoek Road ‘hewn out of the stone face of Sheer Mountain’ was opened to traffic on Saturday 6 May 1922 by the then Governor of the Union of South Africa, His Royal Highness Prince Arthur of Connaught.
In 1962 a section of the road was widened. On 14 May 1977 the road was closed after a large section was washed away and was subsequently replaced by a bridge costing of R150,000.
Road Closure in 2000: in 1994, Noel Graham was injured and partially paralysed in a landslide incident on CPD, which resulted in a court case against the Cape Metropolitan Council who was the road management agent at the time of the incident.
In February 1999 a High Court judgement was given against CMC for negligence in management of the road. The matter was appealed by the CMC but the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal in November 2000, thus reaffirming the Cape High Court’s decision, and CMC was ordered to pay all claims and costs.
Amidst increasing concern for public safety and legal liability, the South Peninsula Municipality (SPM) – the new road management agent appointed in 1997; established a sub-committee of officials from the local, metropolitan and provincial authorities to guide the management of CPD, who instigated high visibility rockfall warning signs to be erected on CPD during 1999.
They also adopted a specific CPD closure policy which inter alia stipulated that the road had to be closed to traffic in rainy weather (very light drizzle excluded) and remain closed for a number of hours after cessation of any rainfall and until deemed safe by SPM’s road management staff. This closure policy/procedure was implemented by SPM’s road management staff with lockable booms put in place to prevent unauthorised entry.
