adminon a portion of Old Esigodini Road in Bulawayo before being used on the Plumtree-Mutare highway next week.
The environmentally-friendly machine would be used to reconstruct about 16 kilometres of road that has totally broken down on the highway.
The scope of the 820km highway project has been broadened to include dualisation of the Bulawayo-Harare Road, following a directive by President Mugabe.
The recycler tears up broken sections of a road, churns it into fine particles, mixes them with bitumen, compacts the road and applies a new surface at one go.
The machine would be used to rehabilitate about 1,5km of Old Esigodini Road from Chelmsford Road towards the Country Club, during the test run.
It is part of the technologically advanced equipment being used by South African internationally renowned road construction experts, Group Five International, to rehabilitate and widen the 820km stretch of road from Plumtree to Mutare.
Group Five went into a partnership with the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) to form a company called Infralink, which is undertaking the project.
In an interview yesterday, Zinara’s regional engineer for the southern region Engineer Moses Julius Juma said the scope of the highway rehabilitation project had been broadened to include dualisation of the Bulawayo-Harare highway.
“Dualisation entails building another road parallel to the existing one, so that the end product has two lanes going in each direction. However, for the moment, we will continue with the project as it is. When additional funds are secured, we will go on to construct the other road and complete the dualisation,” said Eng Juma.
He said Infralink was making a trial run of the equipment to familiarise the largely local work crew with the new equipment.
Eng Juma said the highway would have a new surface when the project is completed in three years.
He said it would become the first modern highway conforming to Sadc protocols, in the country.
“The road’s lifespan will be increased by at least 10 years after completion of the project. Proper maintenance will result in a prolonged lifespan,” said Eng Juma.
The scope of works includes, total rehabilitation or digging up and reconstruction of about 90km of the road, widening about 140 km from a width of seven to 10 metres and surfacing of 590km of the highway.
Last month, Eng Juma said the parts that needed total rehabilitation, which include 16km in Kadoma and a section that was damaged by Cyclone Eline in Figtree, would be done using the recycler.
He said a road could be rehabilitated in a few hours without the need for detours and motorists could drive over it as soon as it is done.
Eng Juma said the new road would have a 10km wide carriageway, with special reflective paint used on the carriageway while reflectors called cat’s eyes would be placed on the road to improve visibility at night.
Nine state-of-the-art toll plazas would be erected along the highway to recoup the $206,6 million that Zinara borrowed from the Development Bank of Southern Africa to finance the project.
Group Five projects director, Mr Ham Coetzee, yesterday said 240 of the 250 people employed on the project were locals.
Online Reporter