Highway rehab on track

Briefing Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development Minister Nicholas Goche during a tour of the road on Thursday, officials from the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) and Group Five International of South Africa said they had covered more than 60km between Bulawayo and Plumtree and 23km between Bulawayo and Shangani.

“The project covers about 820km between Plumtree Border Post and Mutare and would proceed to Forbes Border Post. Between Bulawayo and Plumtree we have finished resurfacing 60km of the road and what is left are isolated portions to be completed soon. Next week we will start working on carriageway markings,” said Zinara regional engineer Moses Juma.

He said 20 percent progress had been done at the toll plaza at the 17km peg on the Bulawayo-Shangani stretch and was hopeful it would be open for traffic before they close for the festive season.

“On the Shangani Road we have covered 23km and have started construction of a state-of-the-art toll plaza which we hope to be done with in mid December before we close for the year.

“This is a $206 million project, which we look forward to completing within 30 months. Initially we delayed because of mobilisation of resources and training of locals, but of late things have been moving. We are on track in terms of surfacing of which all this work was done in the last three months.

“The other challenge has been winter because there are some temperatures that we require for surfacing and now that we are in summer we      should see more progress and our plan is to            be done before we close for holidays,” said Eng Juma.
He said the toll plaza was going to be the first in the country ahead of three others, in Figtree, Norton and Rusape.

“The intention was to start all the seven toll gates before the end of the year and open them         next year but we will start with the four,” said Mr Juma.

Group Five projects director Engineer Ham Coetzee said the newly surfaced road would have carriageway signs done using a special reflective paint.

However, he said they were still to get clearance from the Attorney General’s Office to domesticate road signs and start installing them along the completed sections of the highway.

“We are going to use a special thermo plastic paint because it is reflective for visibility. We are ready to start erecting road signs in line with Sadc regulations and we are only waiting for the AG Office’s nod. The signs are there electronically for Zinara to edit and start using,” he said.

Minister Goche expressed satisfaction with the progress done so far in the rehabilitation of the road, saying he was hopeful the 2014 completion date would be met.

“This is a key national project. When we started things were difficult because we could not get any loans until Group Five and Zinara came together to form a jointly owned company to borrow money. They got $206,6 million from the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

“When work started, it was slow and to us it was as if nothing would happen but as you can see now all the equipment is on site.

“We have been told the delay was due to mobilisation and planning but now everything is moving. As Government we are very happy with the progress so far and hope we meet the completion date, which is 2014. What I am getting here is good, at least I have something to say,” he said.
Minister Goche underscored the need for the contractor to make road shoulders adding lack of such a feature on the roads led to accidents.

“I am going to visit the project again after four weeks but I am worried about the road shoulders because currently our roads are poorly made and in times of a breakdown, motorists have no space to park and that has caused accidents due to side swiping,” he said.

The minister said the dualisation of the highway would start from Harare coming towards Bulawayo because of the volume of traffic there.

“We are also going to dualise the Bulawayo-Harare Road and what they are waiting for now is a letter of confirmation from the ministry. We are going to start from Harare because of traffic, we cannot start dualising this side because of the little volume of traffic.

“The dualisation would end in Gweru and in Plumtree we will only dualise maybe a few kilometres,” said Minister Goche.

Workmen were busy on the road while the recycler was being used to prepare the surface for the road shoulders between Redwood and West Acre.

The surfacing has been done between Redwood, about 40km out of Bulawayo to Plumtree Border Post.

The Minister later in the day toured the site of the toll plaza along the Bulawayo-Gweru Road.