News / National
Plumtree-Mutare road rehab to be completed by December
14 Jul 2014 at 16:15hrs | Views
Group Five, the company rehabilitating the Harare-Bulawayo-Plumtree and the Harare-Mutare roads, says it expects the project to be completed by December this year.
The two strategic arteries provide linkages to cross-border corridors and the deal was expected to cost US$257 800 per kilometer. The $200 million project is being bankrolled by the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA).
Group Five projects director Ham Coetzee told a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructure Development the project's completion timeline is still on course despite delays brought about by low temperatures.
"We are targeting to complete all the road works by December...although installation of equipment may still be in to January," he said.
Coetzee said the project had slowed down in the winter period due to the low temperatures since they can only undertake the use of bitumen in temperatures of around 25 degree Celsius.
"We are not taking any short-cuts as this would compromise the quality of the work," said Coetzee.
To date 200 kilometres of road between Plumtree and Shangani has been completed out of the entire 828km stretch to be done. Parliamentarians also heard that 160km of the road has required complete reconstruction and about half of that has been completed, while about 240km required widening. The group currently employs 1 078 workers with the majority of them being Zimbabwean.
This is, however, a significant decline from its employment peak of just over 2 000 workers in June last year. The company attributed this to an earlier delay in the disbursements of funds by the DBSA.
The Harare-Bulawayo-Plumtree and the Harare-Mutare roads rehabilitation project also includes the construction of toll plazas, which Coetzee said are fully solar-powerd. He said the total cost of the toll plazas is $30 million, which will is being deducted from the $200 million total cost of the project.
The two strategic arteries provide linkages to cross-border corridors and the deal was expected to cost US$257 800 per kilometer. The $200 million project is being bankrolled by the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA).
Group Five projects director Ham Coetzee told a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructure Development the project's completion timeline is still on course despite delays brought about by low temperatures.
"We are targeting to complete all the road works by December...although installation of equipment may still be in to January," he said.
Coetzee said the project had slowed down in the winter period due to the low temperatures since they can only undertake the use of bitumen in temperatures of around 25 degree Celsius.
"We are not taking any short-cuts as this would compromise the quality of the work," said Coetzee.
To date 200 kilometres of road between Plumtree and Shangani has been completed out of the entire 828km stretch to be done. Parliamentarians also heard that 160km of the road has required complete reconstruction and about half of that has been completed, while about 240km required widening. The group currently employs 1 078 workers with the majority of them being Zimbabwean.
This is, however, a significant decline from its employment peak of just over 2 000 workers in June last year. The company attributed this to an earlier delay in the disbursements of funds by the DBSA.
The Harare-Bulawayo-Plumtree and the Harare-Mutare roads rehabilitation project also includes the construction of toll plazas, which Coetzee said are fully solar-powerd. He said the total cost of the toll plazas is $30 million, which will is being deducted from the $200 million total cost of the project.
Source - BH24
