BCC needs $700m for 56km road rehabilitation

BULAWAYO City council has today (Wednesday) commissioned multi-million dollar roads works equipment with the city mayor saying 56km of its road network would be rehabilitated this year.

The equipment was commissioned at Gwabalanda drive.

Mayor Martin Moyo said 70% of the City's road network of 2075 km is in a poor state and $700 million is required to bring the entire network to a good or better condition.

According to a roads assessment report compiled by the council's environmental, management and engineering services committee, the rehabilitation exercise might take three years to complete.

Under the programme set to begin in July, a maximum of 50km of access roads per ward, depending on their condition, would be re-gravelled, surfaced or reconstructed to make them passable.



"The maintenance of these roads is lagging behind due to inadequate resources while the roads continue to deteriorate," reads a assessment report.

"For the past three years, the regravelling programme has been lagging behind.

"The roads branch has been regravelling an average of 25km in five wards per year. This means it takes six years to cover all the city wards, covering 5km per ward.

"The implication is that the regravelling exercise will be carried out once in six years in each ward.

"The branch is now proposing to regravel at least 50km per year covering 15 wards per annum."