Harare spends $20m on roads rehab

Property Reporter
The City of Harare says it has spent approximately $20 million on rehabilitation of the city’s road network with more than 80 kilometres having been tarred already.

In a video posted on the City of Harare’s Facebook page, director of works Engineer Zvenyika Chawatama said the bulk of the roads in the City required emergence works to do repairs and rehabilitation.

He said most of the roads had deteriorated in terms of “trafficability” and an assessment carried in 2017 revealed the need for repairs and rehabilitation.

While the City Fathers are targeting to do at least 250 kilometres council had undertaken a number of projects in Harare.

Some of the roads that have been completed or are still being repaired include but not limited to Bishop Gaul, Waterfalls Avenue, George Road, Aspindale, Highglen road among others.

“There is work that has been done and still being down on Harare Drive,” said Mr Chawatama.

He said the amount of funds spent in 2017 financial year and what has been used so far in 2018 came to around $20 million,

“We still expect to spend more until we reach our target,” he said.

City of Harare corporate communications manager Michael Chideme said the scale of rehabilitation was much bigger than what the City used to do in the past.

“We have always done road rehabilitation, but what is different now is the scale at which we are doing the roads.

“We are doing (repairs) in both the low and high density areas, we are in Mbare, we are in Budiriro along Aspindale Road, in Kambuzuma, we are all over the city,” said Chideme.

“We have realised that the economic transformation in the City is dependent on the good infrastructure that the city can offer. All other infrastructure is also dependent on good road.

“Once our roads come good it means we are able to attract the much needed investment to Harare. So the roads are a key investment driver so that’s why we are concentrating with our roads,” Chideme said.

He said the project had started with the major roads that lead to all the suburbs in Harare so that there is easy of accessing all the areas.

“But eventually we are certainly going to attend to every road in Harare and our engineers are busy sourcing for funding so that we do all the city roads,” said Chideme.

Most roads in the City of Harare are in a deplorable state with potholes now a common feature. In a State of the City Address delivered last week, Harare Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni said the road rehabilitation emergency fund from the government enabled the City to start undertaking some meaningful road rehabilitation works.

“A total of $ 17 million has been pledged and over $12 million has been disbursed to the City.

“To date over 400 km of roads have been fixed of potholes and rehabilitated, patching of 325kms has been done.”

Manyenyeni, however said the work done is quite minimal considering the magnitude of the roads problem in Harare.