‘Highway rehab to reduce accidents’

Freeman Razemba in MASVINGO

Motorists and residents in Chirumhanzu and Masvingo have praised the Government for the considerable work already done in upgrading the Harare-Beitbridge Highway in their area, saying this will markedly reduce accidents, as well as enabling the smooth flow of traffic from Beitbridge Border Post.

The Government is widening, reconstructing and rehabilitating the highway and 340km have since been opened to traffic.

Along the highway, seven bridges, some of them taking the highway over the railway line, will be constructed, while the Skyline tollgate just outside Harare will be moved to the 38km peg.

The multi-million dollar Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway rehabilitation is progressing well as five contractors are on the ground to ensure targets are met by end of this year.

The contractors are Fossil Contracting, Tensor Systems, Masimba Construction, Exodus & Company and Bitumen World.

In separate interviews along the highway, motorists and villagers applauded the Government for the mega project. 

Truck driver, Mr Theron Madondo, said the sections that had been completed were now “more open and wider” than before. 

“While driving, you can easily see animals crossing the road and easily avoid them,” he said. “Let’s hope that the Government will quickly attend to potholes on some sections of the road.” 

Mr Paul Mahanya, a villager near Chaka Business Centre in Chirumhanzu, said a lot of accidents had been occurring on the road and he hoped its widening would reduced the mishaps. 

“So far, this progress is excellent. The road has been widened and many trees have been cleared to increase visibility for motorists,” he said.

A motorist, Mr Alois Mukurumbira said the Government was “doing exceptionally well”, adding that “it had been hell travelling from Harare to Beitbridge”.

Ms Grace Chikwinya, who is a vendor, said the widening of the road would make their work easier as motorists will easily notice them and stop safely to buy their wares.

Mr Brighton Chihapa weighed in saying the stretches of the road that had been completed are “excellent”, but appealed to Government for the construction of speed humps at business centres, to protect children and vendors so that they are not hit by speeding vehicles.

Addressing journalists during a media tour of the road works yesterday, Transport and Infrastructural Development Ministry Permanent Secretary Engineer Kudzanai Chinyanga said the ministry expected to have opened 500km of the upgraded highway by end of this year.

“This is Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge rehabilitation and upgrading,” he said. “Rehabilitation because (the) Beitbridge Road had outlived its own design life; upgrading because we are upgrading it to standard because it’s a regional road.

“The road, at the end of construction, will be twelve and half metres wide. From about 30km out of Harare, measuring it from Harare Post Office, we are going to dualise the road from that point into Harare.

“We have witnessed a point where we are going to install a new tollgate, which will cover the two dualised portions of the road, moving it from the problematic Skyline area because our tollgate is now within a residential area and we are having too many by-passes, with motorists avoiding payment.” 

Eng Chinyanga said contractors had been advised to speed up the pace of the road upgrade. 

Exodus & Company site engineer in Mwenezi, Engineer Ginny Muchenje, said the upgrade was going on well. His firm was now constructing a new road-over-rail bridge in the area. Once the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge section is completed, attention will move to the Harare-Chirundu section linking the border with Zambia.

The entire highway is a critical component of the North-South Corridor, measuring 971km, which links South Africa and Zimbabwe with the rest of SADC and East and Central Africa.

The project is wholly funded by the Government using local resources, except for the 6,5km Marongora-Hellsgate section along the Harare-Chirundu Highway that has been funded to the tune of US$21 million by the government of Japan.

The upgrade of the highway has been divided into three sections: Beitbridge-Harare of 585km with eight toll plazas, Harare-Chirundu of 342km with six toll plazas, and the Harare Ring Road of 59km with three toll plazas. Under the Infrastructure, Utilities and Digital Economy cluster, the national economic blueprint, the National Development Strategy (NDS 1) prioritises completion of road rehabilitation. 

Addressing the inaugural Buy Zimbabwe 2022 public procurement conference and awards ceremony in Harare last Wednesday, President Mnangagwa said local companies contracted by the Government to reconstruct and rehabilitate roads and highways were doing a sterling and professional work, which highlights their capabilities.

Previously, local companies were being overlooked in terms of the awarding of tenders for big national projects.