‘Kwekwe roads beyond repair, need rehab’

Midlands Correspondent
Most roads in Kwekwe City need complete rehabilitation and resurfacing as opposed to patching because they are now in a very bad state, town clerk Mr Ngwena Musara has said.

Addressing a full council meeting on Wednesday, Mr Musara said the roads were no longer repairable since they had outlived their lifespan.

“Our roads are very old and patching is no longer an option,” he said. “The roads need to be re-done since they have outlived their lifespan. Under normal circumstances the roads are supposed to be resealed after every five years, but due to economic hardships, we could not afford that so they are now beyond repair.”

Mr Musara said the local authority would soon embark on the roads rehabilitation programme, adding that the local authority had sent an SOS to the Zimbabwe National Roads Authority (ZINARA) to fund the programme.

“We are going to look at major roads, which attract more traffic and those in the Central Business District (CBD),” he said. “We are still to receive funds from ZINARA for the roads rehab, but we have communicated the state of the roads to them.”

The city’s director of works, Engineer John Mhike said the local authority will hire contractors for the rehabilitation through tender.

“We have started flighting tenders so that we can hire contractors to carry out the road rehabilitation programme,” he said. “The contractors will be paid by ZINARA after they complete the job.

“The new arrangement is that the contractors would use their resources and ZINARA will pay them after the job.”

Eng Mhike said the rehabilitation work was expected to commence in few weeks to come.

“Hopefully rains are going to permit work to start,” he said. “We are hoping that by the time we get the contractor, the rains, which are falling on a daily basis would have stopped.

“We are targeting Maunganidze Road from end to end, and all major roads that link the CBD to residential suburbs like Mbizo and Amaveni. But the rest will be redone as soon as we receive ZINARA funding.”

Eng Mhike said some firms had already expressed willingness to play a part in road rehabilitation in the city.

“Companies like Dusty Earthmoving, Portnex and Zimasco have expressed willingness to partner us in the rehabilitation of the roads and we are happy they are assisting in the development of the city,” he said.