Online Reporter
Freeman Razemba
Senior Reporter
The rehabilitation and widening of the Chitungwiza Road that links the dormitory town to the Trabablas Interchange is now underway, which has been hailed by motorists and commuters.
This is expected to ease persistent traffic congestion along the busy route.
A local contractor is now on site conducting the works. In 2023, the Government started rehabilitating part of the Chitungwiza Road under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP2), which had been in a bad state.
The road, which is about 6,6km long, was reconstructed by a local company, Syvern Contracting, and it is between Manyame River Bridge up to the intersection of Tilcor Road and Chitungwiza Road in the industrial areas.
Chitungwiza Road links to the US$88 million Trabablas interchange, High Glen Road to Bulawayo Road and Machipisa.
Chitungwiza Road is also seen as one of the roads connecting through the Mbudzi interchange to divert through traffic around Harare, instead of expecting heavy truck traffic to go through the city centre.
More than 50 000km of roads have been rehabilitated and reconstructed while 2 000 structures have been attended to since the start of the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP2) in 2021 under a sustained road and infrastructure development drive by the Second Republic.
ERRP2, has been extended to 2026 following a directive from President Mnangagwa. The extension reaffirms the Government’s commitment to building a modern, interconnected transport network capable of positioning Zimbabwe as a regional logistics hub.
Initially launched in March 2021 as a short-term response to extensive road damage caused by years of neglect and extreme weather, ERRP2 has since evolved into a long-term national infrastructure revival initiative aligned with Vision 2030.
Zimbabwe has an estimated road network of 90 000km, out of which 93 percent of the network was in fair or poor condition and in need of rehabilitation or periodic maintenance.
President Mnangagwa launched the US$400 million ERRP2 project, a countrywide initiative meant to improve the country’s road network that had been damaged following heavy rains brought by Cyclone Idai in 2019.
More damage to roads was done by subsequent rains and the Government has been working to make the roads easily usable.
Ongoing road projects include pothole patching, grading, re-gravelling, spot dumping, wash away repairs, culverts construction, reseals and rehabilitation.
ERRP2 has created several jobs as hundreds of people have been employed to work on the different projects.
