Westbank is proposing ideal Estates or New Towns for planned residential communities that will contain from 500 to 10,000 housing units made up of predominantly low cost 2, 3 and 4 Bedroom semi-detached and detached Bungalows , Flats and Terrace houses to be completed over the next few years. This proposal may in view of cost considerations be adjusted or amended to suit already laid out estates designs and costing.
The new township will have a central boulevard circulation spine starting at the main security entry which branches into various neighbourhoods that are identified by their various building types as well as plot layouts and sizes.
The central boulevard links these neighbourhoods to the commercial and recreational centres and have a right of way of 30 metres.
Neighborhood streets provide direct access and street parking for residents.
This has a Right-of-way of 18.9 meters which can accommodate two moving lanes of traffic at 40 Kmh. Parking may be allowed on either side or both sides of the street.
An area 3.6 meter in width is available for sidewalks and street trees on each side of the street while a corner curb radius of 3 meters is used to facilitate pedestrian crossings.
Neighborhoods have been grouped by building types to create standard environments that reflect a common social strata but with varying plot sizes and building layouts to avoid a monotony and establish a refreshing variety within the neighborhood environment.
Thus within a neighborhood there are 3 Bedroom semi-detached House located on 287.6sq meters plots
Blocks of 8 No. 3 Bedroom flats located on 860.2 sq meters plots.
While within another neighborhood the same variety would be repeated for 6 No. 2 Bedroom flats located on 656.8 sq meters.
Each of these neighborhoods have public, commercial and Recreational plots carefully located within them providing facilities such as Nursery/Primary Schools, Places of worship, Clinics, Hotels, All types of Shops/Supermarkets and Recreational green areas.
Security
The Estate will employ various types of reinforcing security systems to safeguard residents and visitors, including a perimeter security wall enclosing the entire Estate.
Points of entrance and exit to the Estate will be secured at all times. Video cameras will monitor important public locations in the Estate, connected to the central security office.
Roving vehicular and walking patrols will monitor the Estate on regular schedules and report by radio to the central security office.
Shopping/Transport
A major shopping centre with an adjoining market.
As well as a secondary school that all the Nursery/Primary Schools in the various neighborhoods feed into.
A bus terminus that public transportation within the estate originates from.
Power Supply
The Estate will be connected to the national grid for its power supply. Adequate provision of electrical infrastructure such as transformers and sub-stations would be provided by the Government.
Garbage and Solid Waste Management
A coordinated garbage and solid waste management system will be provided for all residents and businesses within the Estate.
A regular schedule of pick-ups will be maintained and waste will be taken initially to an off site landfill.
However, after a few years when the population and waste generated might have grown then consideration could be given to either burn the waste collecting the heat to generate power or as a pelletizer to turn human waste sludge to fertilizer
Sanitry Sewer System
The sanitary sewerage waste will be collected through a poly-vinyl-chloride plastic (PVC) sanitary sewer collection network that will transport the sewage to the treatment facility. Generally this system will have a trunk-system spine located near the centre north-south boulevard with area collectors coming from the east and west. The treatment facility will be a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) type that will be situated in the southwest corner of the Estate. The waste water will be treated to such a level as to provide non-potable irrigation water for Estate landscaping.
Water System
Water will be supplied through a series of deep (300 meter) wells.
These wells will utilize a well-head type chlorinating process and the water will be pumped and transported to the water supply plant via a poly-vinyl-chloride plastic (PVC) well collection network.
The water supply plant will centrally located along the western boundary of the overall site.
This facility will include hydro-pneumatic pressure tanks and ground storage tanks.
A series of booster pumps will boost will boost the pressure in the system and pump the water through a series of water distribution lines to individual housing units.
Storm Water System
The storm water runoff will be collected through a series of concrete inlets and catch basins and transported through a reinforced concrete pipe and open channel storm drainage conveyance system network to the natural water body if there is or to a storage dam and reservoir.