Chapman's Peak

The Chapman 's Peak Drive is a nine kilometer long coastal road on the Cape Peninsula south of Cape Town.

It winds in 114 curves directly between the sea and steep cliffs along Hout Bay to Noordhoek and leads over Chapman's Peak, a 160 -meter-high vantage point. Numerous tourists traveled this route daily and many auto companies turning against this backdrop advertising photographs.

Although the construction of the road first appeared impracticable, managed under the direction of geologist Charl Marais, to realize the project. Construction began in 1915, partly life-threatening working conditions on the rugged sloping into the sea rock slopes. Seven years later, in 1922, the road to traffic could be released.

Despite the prescribed speed limit of 20 km / h, the drive over Chapman 's Peak Drive was not without danger. Again and again fell down boulders and killed people. In the wet track many cars came skidding, bouncing against the rocks or fallen into the depths.

The accidents became more frequent and thirty percent of the route were buried in January 2000, locked to the road. Since the public could not raise the funds for the rehabilitation, the road for 30 years was leased to a private consortium. The Ltd.. Entabeni ( Pty) invested 150 million rand in the reconstruction of the road. They installed huge nets for falling rocks and sprinkled on two particularly dangerous stretches of a tunnel or half tunnel in the rock. In December 2003, the Chapman 's Peak Drive was opened to traffic again. In order to recover the high renovation costs, costs each way for cars via the " Chappie " current 33 edge toll fee.

External links and sources

• Official web site of the road

- 34.0529418.37841Koordinaten: 34 ° 3 ' S, 18 ° 23' O

• Holiday road
• Road in South Africa
• Tourism ( South Africa)
• Transport ( Western Cape )
• Cape Town