Paper presented at the 30th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 11-14 July 2011 "Africa on the Move", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.
During the 1940s and 1950s the engineers and planners of Cape Town were immersed in debates about proposed road infrastructure on Cape Town's Foreshore. As various alternatives were discussed the tensions between National, Provincial and City government and the Foreshore Board surfaced. This paper highlights one aspect of the story using reports, archived correspondence and minutes of meetings from the time. The paper argues that Foreshore Freeway planning was an inherently political exercise and that Foreshore Freeway infrastructure, in common with other technological artefacts, has politics "embedded" into it.
