municipality are better serviced than the rural and peri-urban areas such as Edendale. A lack of adequate water and sanitation could lead to health and financial implications to those communities that are inadequately serviced.
Figure 39: Urban Structure of the Edendale-Northdale Corridor (ENC)
Source: Arup, 2006
The M70 (Edendale Road) forms the main structuring element in Edendale, and follows the valley line of the Msunduzi River that runs parallel to the north. The primary mobility route traverses the township.
To the south running parallel is the Dambuza Road, a collector road culminates at the Qokololo Stadium Node. However due to the steep landscape that limits development, most of the residential township is located to the south of the corridor. The Edendale corridor is dominated by the Edendale Hospital Node and its associated sporting, institutional and community facilities, which is the primary node in the area.
The rest of the nodes are classified as secondary, which includes the Georgetown, Caluza, Machibisa and the Qokololo Stadium Nodes as illustrated in Figures 39 and 40. Furthermore, the role of the Edendale section of the corridor was identified as a primary economic zone suitable for retail, industrial activities
and public zone to serve the rural hinterland. However, all the nodes including Georgetown where Edendale originated are severely underdeveloped and under resourced.
Figure 40: Nodes along the Edendale Section of the ENC
Source: Msunduzi, 2006
The CBD section of the corridor forms the core of the corridor and comprises all the characteristics of a typical central business district. Structured around the Old Greytown Road (M10), the Northdale section is a newer parallel mobility route known as the New Greytown Road (R33). This section of the corridor traverses the Willowton industrial area, the Northdale Hospital Node and splits into two parallel routes.
The old Greytown Road is a residential collector and provides access to the residential suburbs in Northdale. It has two activity nodes namely the Northdale Hospital Node and the Greytown Road Node.
Both the Edendale and Greytown Roads function as the major arterials and primary mobility roads with the several nodes located along them. At major intervals, major distributor and arterial roads intersect with the Edendale (M70) and Old Greytown Roads (M10) as access roads.
The urban structure of the corridor functions as a mobility route and comprises various nodes at different scales of intensity along the corridor as illustrated in Map 20. Hence, the corridor can be likened to the analogy as “beads on a string” as described in Chapter Three of this dissertation. The concept is explained as the string component represents the mobility route between the centres and the beads are the various nodes along the corridor. Iyer Urban Design (2014) indicated that a test of the Edendale Hospital Node revealed that there is a need for greater densities, appropriate land uses and a more permeable settlement structure. Similar characteristics were found in all the other nodes along the corridor since increased densities are critical in order to ensure that the proposed BRT system is viable. A significant findings from the assessments revealed that the areas lacked connections to the corridor.
5.5.1 The Edendale New Town Centre 5.5.1.1 Background
Based on the assessments of the socio-economic conditions prevalent in the Edendale area, the Edendale Hospital Node located within the GEA along the corridor identified as a Primary Node i.e. “a primary economic zone suitable for retail, industrial activities and public zone to serve the rural hinterland’. It is linked to a diverse range of areas and nodes within the Msunduzi Municipality including the rural, traditional, semi-urban, and suburban to urban and industrial areas and provides the opportunity for future development of the area. Studies commissioned by Msunduzi have also concluded that there is a critical need for public investment and upgrading in these nodes. In response to these challenges, the Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant (NDPG) was made available by the Department of Treasury to the Municipality with the primary aim to stimulate and accelerate investment in poor, underserved areas and neighbourhoods such as the Edendale Township. After having followed a vigorous criteria evaluation, the Edendale Hospital Node was earmarked for the development of an Urban Hub (i.e. Town Centre) as part of the Neighbourhood Development Partnerships (NDP) Urban Network Strategy for improving the spatial structure of the city in the quest to advance transformation and reconstruction
Map 21: Edendale New Town Centre Node
Source: Msunduzi, 2016
The Neighbourhood Development Partnership (NDP) introduced the Urban Network Strategy (UNS) to reshape the urban spatial form, which is based on an approach that builds on an urban network model that is transit oriented namely the corridor development approach. Hence, the Edendale Hospital Node was identified for the establishment of a New Town Centre within the prescripts of this policy. The grant has been structured to support and facilitate planning of neighbourhood development programmes and projects that provide catalytic infrastructure to leverage public and private sector development towards improving the quality of life of previously disadvantaged communities located in townships. Furthermore, it is driven by the notion that public funding can be used creatively to leverage private and community investment in order to unlock the social and economic potential within neglected townships and neighbourhoods. This strategy will contribute to South Africa’s macro- economic performance. The urban hub is envisaged to function as a Town Centre for the surrounding residential areas that will provide access to the rest of the primary urban network. As such its location
acts as a gateway linking the secondary networks within the townships to the primary network that stretches across the entire urban area, which consists of primary nodes such as the CBD, public transport linkages connecting the nodes and main movement networks.