Artist’s impression of the pedestrian bridge that will link the Crystal Towers precinct and Canal Walk at Century City.

A new state-of-the-art pedestrian bridge linking the Crystal Towers development to Canal Walk shopping centre is nearing completion at Century City.

Being built at a cost of more than R11million, this is the fifth bridge to be built at Century City spanning the Grand Canal and providing pedestrian links between the north and south banks.

The new 86m bridge links the Canal Walk precinct directly with the “internal street’ of Crystal Towers, which comprises a five star 180 room African Pride hotel and spa, 91 luxury apartments and 7 000 m2 of Triple A grade offices. The internal street is in turn a major pedestrian arterial route between the Crystal Towers precinct and the planned Bridgeways Precinct at Century City.

Greg Deans, a director of Rabie Property Group, says the first phase of the 100 000 m2 Bridgeways Precinct development was planned on a site south west of Crystal Towers near the Virgin Active gym, and will consist of offices, shops and hotels.

“Century City is included in phase one of the City’s Bus Rapid Transit System and the planned Century City BRT station is close to Crystal Towers, so the new bridge will also be another link for passengers who want to visit Canal Walk.”

Deans says the bridge landing on the Canal Walk precinct is designed in such a way that future expansion of the shopping centre would be able to interface relatively seamlessly with the bridge, providing easy access to the upper level of the centre.

Designed by Vivid Architects, the eye-catching 72 ton bridge is lit up at night by low voltage LED lighting on the 19m high arch and walkway. The arch lighting changes colour every five minutes to create an intriguing ambience.

Construction of the bridge has taken about nine months and is due for completion in the next few weeks.