Flooding opposite Canal Walk caused heavy traffic on the N1 on Tuesday morning. (@TrafficSA/X)

• Lanes one the N1 highway – both incoming and outgoing – have been closed due to water that spilled onto the roadway from a wetland area.
• Motorists have been stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for a second morning in a row.
• Law enforcement agencies have been deployed to the area to maintain law and order.

Motorists travelling to Cape Town’s CBD from the city’s northern suburbs had to find dizzying detours or endure long queues of bumper-to-bumper traffic on Tuesday morning after lanes were closed in both directions on the N1 highway, close to Sable Road in Century City.

The gridlock was caused when the wetland area in the rail reserve close to Century City reached capacity after heavy downpours over the past two weeks, causing water to spill onto the roadway, according to Western Cape Department of Infrastructure spokesperson Jandre Bakker.

“The stormwater system that channels water from one side of the N1 to the other is also functioning at full capacity, but it is not draining the water quickly enough,” Bakker said.

“This is causing water to back up onto the N1 [and] has resulted in lane closures, mainly on the N1 inbound before Sable Road. Outbound lanes are less affected. Despite warning signs and lanes merging to one lane, road users are not reducing their speed.”

READ | Thousands displaced in Cape Town floods as icy cold front hits SA

And it looks like it won’t be over for the next few days. More rain is expected over the city.

“While we are hopeful that fewer lane closures will be in place as water drains, there is still a real likelihood of lane closures over the next few days,” said Bakker. 

City of Cape Town traffic spokesperson Maxine Bezuidenhout said traffic and law enforcement agencies were deployed to the area to maintain law and order.

Motorists were tearing their hair out.

Using colourful words to describe the ordeal, Mitchells Plain resident Mark Jacobs said driving into the CBD was a “complete shit show”.

“My word! I left my home at 05:00 and got to work just after 07:00 in literal bumper-to-bumper traffic. Isn’t that enough to make you so damn pissed off before the day even started?” he said.

Capetonian Kelly Adonis said her husband Richard had called her early in the morning to say she would need to leave the house “as soon as possible” because of the “traffic nightmare”.

“My kids literally got dressed in their school uniforms inside the car while I drove them to school in town. They didn’t understand what the fuck was happening, but I just said to them: ‘Get in the car, or we are all are going to be very late.’

“When I got onto the N1, it was a complete nightmare. People hooted in the traffic as if that was going to make the situation less daunting, but it just irritated us motorists even more.”

Joel Ontong from Pniel in Stellenbosch said he left home at 05:00 and got to work just after 06:20.

“After N1 City, traffic was literally crawling into town, but what made me stay calm was having music playing. Rapper Kendrick Lamar always does me good,” he said.

The infrastructure department said the stormwater system was designed to ensure that water moves from one side of the N1 to the other via a number of pipe culverts or along open drainage systems to where it discharges near the Koeberg Interchange. 

Bakker said:

He added that over the past couple of years, the vlei’s capacity seemed to have reduced, which caused it to flood into the road reserve and then drain via the road drainage system. 

“While the system has been managing the additional pressure over the past couple of years, it has been under significant pressure as this was not what it was designed for. While the stormwater system is not designed for road-related runoff, the vlei is used for a lot of different purposes.

“The system is designed to handle large water volumes from the roadway; the water volume is much higher than usual due to multiple weather incidents following each other in an already saturated area,” Bakker added.

The department was unable to advise when traffic would be back to normal.

“Unfortunately, it is not something we can put a definite timeline to. Our engineering teams are on site to find alternative ways to supplement the stormwater drainage process. Additional to the normal maintenance efforts, the teams will action the clearing of earth drains along with specialised high-pressure cleaning of the pipe culverts,” Bakker said.