News / National
BCC admits pothole problem, engages residents
03 Jun 2015 at 13:35hrs | Views
Bulawayo City Council has resorted to engage residents to assist with pothole patching and has set aside more than $1million for the task.
Each of the 29 wards will have a team of 12 members working on the projects and $1 030 591.61 has been sourced.
An estimated area of 51 000sqm is expected to be covered.
The initiative is termed Community Pothole Patching program and is earmarked to be an annual shift.
Council says the city's road network has and continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate. The City has failed to properly carry out planned maintenance activities due to financial, manpower and material constraints, a new council report states.
The Road Condition Survey conducted in 2012 shows that 69% of the sealed road network is in poor to very poor condition. The total sealed road network is 1,939km and local streets constitute 47% (914km). 74% (676km) of the local streets are in poor condition characterized by numerous potholes.
It said the rate of pothole patching carried out cannot match number of potholes on the roads and to avert further destruction of the City's surfaced road network immediate remedial works have to be undertaken.
The proposal is to have the 29 Wards split into four batches. Wards in the Eastern suburbs ie Ward 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 will have 2 groups and Wards in the Western areas including the CBD will have 1 group each.
This number of groups in each Ward has been decided based on the length of the surfaced network. Patching in the CBD will be covered by Council teams but to avoid prejudicing the Ward, the Ward group will be engaged to carry out street sweeping, catch pit opening and medians clearing.
Total number of groups for the exercise is 34.
The report said Councillors will be expected to assist in identifying members of the community within their respective Wards.
To patch the pothole successful the teams have to sweep the road of sand and mark pothole, Pothole preparations, mix pothole patching materials, apply and compact and clean and load excess material.
Total labour budget for the exercise is $271 584.00, total cost of procuring tools for each cluster is $13 771.692 Materials 745 235.92 and labour is expected to gobble $271 584.00 brining a total of $1 030 591.61
Payment to the labourers will be based on measured works according to the area covered.
Each of the 29 wards will have a team of 12 members working on the projects and $1 030 591.61 has been sourced.
An estimated area of 51 000sqm is expected to be covered.
The initiative is termed Community Pothole Patching program and is earmarked to be an annual shift.
Council says the city's road network has and continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate. The City has failed to properly carry out planned maintenance activities due to financial, manpower and material constraints, a new council report states.
The Road Condition Survey conducted in 2012 shows that 69% of the sealed road network is in poor to very poor condition. The total sealed road network is 1,939km and local streets constitute 47% (914km). 74% (676km) of the local streets are in poor condition characterized by numerous potholes.
It said the rate of pothole patching carried out cannot match number of potholes on the roads and to avert further destruction of the City's surfaced road network immediate remedial works have to be undertaken.
This number of groups in each Ward has been decided based on the length of the surfaced network. Patching in the CBD will be covered by Council teams but to avoid prejudicing the Ward, the Ward group will be engaged to carry out street sweeping, catch pit opening and medians clearing.
Total number of groups for the exercise is 34.
The report said Councillors will be expected to assist in identifying members of the community within their respective Wards.
To patch the pothole successful the teams have to sweep the road of sand and mark pothole, Pothole preparations, mix pothole patching materials, apply and compact and clean and load excess material.
Total labour budget for the exercise is $271 584.00, total cost of procuring tools for each cluster is $13 771.692 Materials 745 235.92 and labour is expected to gobble $271 584.00 brining a total of $1 030 591.61
Payment to the labourers will be based on measured works according to the area covered.
Source - Byo24News
