Chronicle EditorVictor Maphosa Herald Reporter
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Roads and Infrastructure yesterday said it will open an investigation into the cost of repairing the Chivake Bridge span in Murehwa, which was destroyed by a huge granite stone that fell off a haulage truck in 2014. This was after the provincial maintenance officer in the Ministry of Transport, Mr Tatenda Arigundia, indicated that half a million dollars was spent on repairing the bridge during the committee’s tour of the bridge on Tuesday.
“The whole job was financed by Zimbabwe National Roads Administration(Zinara) and as a ministry we received $566 750,00 towards the reconstruction of the span but we used $539 569,78 and it took almost four months to complete the task,” he said. The committee’s chairman Cde Dexter Nduna said the amount used was too much for span reconstruction only.
“The walk ways and parapet were intact and the bridge supports were not damaged and not replaced so how on earth would repairs of three quarters of a single bridge span of less than nine metre width cost that much. A house in Mabelreign costs $80 000 from foundation to roof top, how then does the cost of these repairs come to this?” said Mr Nduna.
“We will seek relevant information from the relevant authorities on who was doing what during the re-construction of the span because the money that was spent here is too much,” he said. The committee expressed concern that granite stone miners were not involved in the reconstruction of the bridge yet it was their product that caused the damage.
The bridge was damaged when the driver of the truck carrying a 40-tonne granite block lost control of his vehicle and the boulder fell off the trailer and punched a hole through the bridge. The driver was on his way to Harare from Mutoko, a key supplier of granite for export. Chivake is one of the major bridges in Mashonaland East Province.
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