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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
JANUARY
2015
to the nearby N2 freeway via a series of
on-ramps and off-ramps. The first phase of
the network, connecting Walker Drive with
the mall and the freeway, is scheduled for
completion in March next year, with the link
to Cape Road in Bridgemeade/Rowallan Park
set for opening next September, he says.
PROJECTS AND CONTRACTS
The deal will see Vodacom light
the entire high speed fibre optic
backbone of the 320 hectare Bay-
west City development, providing
high speed internet to Baywest Mall
tenants and shoppers alike. By lighting
the network, Vodacom will be providing
the data to end users using Baywest’s fibre
optic infrastructure.
Baywest is the first large scale green
fields development in the country to incor-
porate a wholly functional fibre optic back-
bone from inception. A development span-
ning the next decade, Baywest City includes
commercial and retail offerings, as well as
residential nodes with a private school and
hospital in a model similar to Cape Town’s
Century City development. Baywest Mall,
which opens in April next year, is the catalyst
for the entire project.
Baywest MD Gavin Blows says the deal
paved the way for Baywest City to become
an interconnected ‘smart city’.
It meant homes and businesses within
the Baywest precinct could be connected to
fast, reliable internet, better managing secu-
rity systems while allowing for the technolog-
ical development of homes and businesses to
progress in leaps and bounds, he said.
“It will be a smart city with fibre optics
throughout, allowing for high speed internet
access. The security and internet access
will run off this fibre optic backbone,” says
Blows. “The new model of city development
needs to have the latest technology.”
For tenants of the mall it meant having
ground breaking technology at their finger-
tips. “The fibre optic network also allows
for free calls within the precinct, reduced
call rates, easy cloud computing, and live
gaming without any lag, among a host of
other advantages,” says Blows.
“We no longer have to talk about what it
means to live in a smart city – we are building
one,” says Blows. “Having a high speed fibre
optic backbone lit by South Africa’s biggest
cellular provider fits well with our slogan:
‘Expect Big Things’.”
With just over 1 600 workers currently
working on the mall, Blows says tenant
installations were on track to start from
December. “There are about 3,5 km of shop
fronts throughout the mall and about 35 km
worth of electrical cabling,” Blows says.
Also on track was the R300-milliom
Baywest road network, connecting the mall
Watershed for
SA ‘SMART CITIES’
Developers of the R1,7-billion Baywest Mall in Port Elizabeth’s
western suburbs have signed a landmark deal with South Africa’s
largest mobile communication provider, Vodacom, signalling
a watershed moment in the development of ‘smart cities’
throughout the country.
The developers of Baywest City in Port Elizabeth have announced a landmark deal with Vodacom which will see the communications giant install Baywest’s fibre
optic network, giving high speed internet access throughout the development
>
Fast facts about
Baywest
• The mall size, 87 500 m², is the
gross leasable area and excludes
the parking area for about 3 200
vehicles.
• The development of the mall is a
joint venture between Abacus Asset
Management and Billion Group.
• The construction value of the mall
is approximately R1,7-billion, with
a further R300-million being spent
on developing the road network in
the area. The road network includes
an interchange onto/off the N2
freeway, as well as the Redhouse-
Chelsea arterial road, linking the
suburbs of Sherwood and Rowallan
Park/Bridgemeade via a road over
the N2.
• The mall is central to the
development of the greater Baywest
City project, which will be similar
in concept to Cape Town’s Century
City development.
• About 25% of the 320 ha Baywest
City site has been allocated for
environmental preservation and
will not be developed at all.