State-owned Airports Company South Africa is positioning itself to develop an aerocity around Bram Fischer International Airport, near Bloemfontein, in the Mangaung metropolitan municipality of the Free State.
The proposed airport precinct, to the south of the airport entrance, will be a multibillion-rand infrastructure and property development, and will be the biggest project yet for Mangaung.
The first phase covers 700 ha on the southern side of the N8 between Bloemfontein and Thaba Nchu and the total development will cover 2 000 ha.
The project aims to reposition Mangaung economically and financially. The first phase is set to create 11 000 jobs and the aerocity will bring Thaba Nchu and Botshabelo closer to Bloemfontein. Details of Phase 2 will be released in three to four years’ time.
Phase 1 will require 5 100 t of cement and 130 000 m2 of stone; 17 280 m3 of tar will be used to construct 72 km of roads; 160 km of roadside curbing will be constructed; and 32 km of water pipes, as well as 24 km of stormwater pipes, will be laid.
Mangaung spans 6 000 km2, has a population of about one-million and is the economic powerhouse of the Free State, driven mainly by the services sector.
The aerocity will link the transport system of Bloemfontein, including trains, taxis and buses. It is incorporated as part of a larger national strategic infrastructure project (SIP), SIP 2, the Durban–Free–State-Gauteng logistics and industrial corridor – which is being overseen by the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Committee.
The first phase would have an urban square, a shopping mall, an international conference centre, hotels, schools, parks, a tertiary satellite campus, a small industrial area, a mixed residential area and a railway station, said City of Mangaung strategic and special projects manager George Masuabi at the Airport Cities World Conference and Exhibition at Emperors Palace Convention Centre, in Ekurhuleni, last month.
Further, all buildings in the development will be energy efficient and part of the town will be powered by solar energy, as a solar energy plant will be built nearby.
The aerocity is envisaged as an environment where people can “walk and work” and as a pedestrian-friendly environment within an integrated mixed development area that will enable property investors to improve their investment portfolios.
“We want to increase bulk infrastructure capacity in and around the airport to improve our nonaeronautical income,” says Masuabi.