Harare sued over flyovers

Blessings Chidakwa
Municipal Reporter
The flyover complex at the south-west corner of central Harare has not been repaired or attended to 15 years since engineers identified serious damage to the concrete on the edges that has exposed reinforcing steel to rust with Harare City Council just ignoring the problem and hoping for the best.

On Monday last week the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), represented by Mr Tinashe Chinopfukutwa, wrote to Harare City Council’s director of works and copied the letter to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works and the acting town clerk, asking what was being done to prevent the flyover complex collapsing and causing injury to motorists and pedestrians.

So far the only public comment from Harare City Council is from spokesperson Mr Michael Chideme who yesterday said the council was establishing whether the flyovers are managed by council or Government, The complex of three flyovers was built before independence by the city council.

“We are instructed by our client that in 2006 the City of Harare contracted engineering consultants to inspect and report on the defects on the Simon Mazorodze, Lytton and Fidel Castro Road (formerly Charter Road) flyovers.

“We are advised that the City of Harare engineers together with the consulting engineers carried out an inspection of the three flyovers on Thursday, September 21, 2006 and another detailed inspection of Friday, September 29, 2006,” reads the letter from the lawyers.

The lawyers said the defects were brought to the attention of the City of Harare and a more detailed inspection was proposed in order to work out what had to be done to rectify the defects.

“Sadly, we are advised that the City of Harare has not taken any steps from 2006 to date to rectify the defects thereby exposing the public to danger in the event of collapse or failure of these structures. Therefore, we are kindly enquiring on the action that the City of Harare is taking in order to renovate the said flyovers and eliminate the hazard posed by these defects to the residents of Harare,” reads the letter.

The ZLHR said the inspection observed a number of anomalies including spalling (a form of flaking) of concrete, which have exposed rusted reinforcing steel bars in the beams at several places.

The defect is prevalent on beams in the middle at several locations, where “laitance and efflorescence from ingress of moisture is severe”.

“This coincides with the gravel median island of the dual carriageway, suggesting that the island and deck slab are pervious along the centre,” reads the letter.

“We are advised that the aforementioned defects occur on the outer beams and the adjacent inner beams suggesting that the rusted reinforcement bars are no longer contributing to the load bearing capacity leaving only the four central beams bearing the load of the two traffic lanes on Abel Gamal Nasser Road (formerly Rotten Row).”

The flyover complex was divided into three simple flyovers, According to the letter, at the Lytton Road flyover, the main defect manifesting is the ingress of moisture at joints between the precast beams while at Fidel Castro Road flyover the main defect is the ingress of moisture at the joints, particularly on the outer edge beams.