03/11/2026
In 2002, the cut slope at Suikerbossie Nek, along Victoria Road between Camps Bay and Hout Bay, was crumbling toward the road. Cracks ran through the head-scarp, the cut-off drains above had silted up and overtopped, and a collapse during heavy rain and poor visibility was judged imminent.
The City of Cape Town, Department of Transport, Roads and Stormwater, appointed Jeffares & Green to design the remedial measures, with M. van Wieringen and Associates carrying out the geotechnical assessment. Gunite, soil nails and a retaining wall up to 8.5 m high were all ruled out, because the cutting was in full view of much of Hout Bay and bordered the Cape Peninsula National Park.
The team chose a different path. A near-vertical gabion toe wall up to 2.5 m high was built at the base; the 35-degree slope above was covered with Terraforce Retaining Walls® Terrafix™ 150 blocks laid at 10 per m², and a concrete-lined cut-off drain with Terraforce® L12 side walls was added along the crest. The Terraforce® Terrafix™ blocks trapped topsoil on the face, and concrete infill walers at 5 m intervals kept the curved surface locked together. Thousands of water-wise indigenous plants followed, including Tetragonia fruticosa, Helichrysum cymosum, Sparaxis grandiflora, Metalasia and Aristea major.
Twenty-four years later, the photographs tell the story. Where once there was a raw, eroding scar, a lush green hillside now holds its ground year after year.
Terraforce® congratulates the City of Cape Town, Jeffares & Green https://www.jgafrika.com and M. van Wieringen and Associates on a solution that has stood the test of time.
