Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube, [email protected]
VICTORIA Falls City has installed its first-ever traffic lights in a development that is expected to go a long way in the local authority’s quest to become a smart city.
The traffic lights are on the intersection of Livingstone Way and Pioneer Road next to Sawanga Mall.
The traffic lights were installed a few months ago and were switched on for the first time a few days ago.
Livingstone Way is administered by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development.
Chase Contractors, a Harare-based civil engineering company was given the tender in 2022 by the Government to rehabilitate a section of Livingstone Way near Sawanga Mall to create an access road to a new Engen Garage.
The original site had a traffic circle (roundabout) from where Pioneer Road started while Livingstone Way, an extension of Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road proceeded to the Victoria Falls border.
The traffic lights and an access road into the new Engen garage and connecting to Clark Road were added to the new design.
The road was also expanded into a multi-lane highway as the Government sought to upgrade the infrastructure to meet city status after conferring Victoria Falls with the title in 2019.
Victoria Falls stakeholders, including residents, once staged a demonstration in 2022 accusing the contractor of not doing a good job and called for restoration of the roundabout.
The traffic lights come as a relief and are expected to enhance safety as there were numerous accidents at the site owing to lack of road signs.
A news crew observed that the traffic lights were now working and no accident has been recorded since then.
A motorist, Mr Gideon Moyo said driving past the site will now be safe.
“You would be scared to drive past the site because there were no regulatory signs and some drivers would do whatever they thought was good making it a dark spot judging with the number of accidents that were taking place there. Now that there are robots it will be safe and we pray they are always working,” he said.
A majority of young drivers in Victoria Falls had never driven past a traffic light owing to lack of the infrastructure in the city hence the development is a huge milestone.
Victoria Falls City Council economic development manager Mr Ngqabutho Moyo recently said the local authority was working on a number of strategies to develop state-of-the-art infrastructure to transform the city into a destination of choice.
The city has since installed solar-powered street lights on the same road to enhance lighting and modernise the city.
The traffic lights project is part of Government’s work on the country’s road infrastructure through the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Project. —@ncubeleon
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