Bulawayo City Council covering potholes using gravel

THE Bulawayo City Council has proposed an "Adopt a Road" policy to enlist residents in rehabilitating roads in the outskirts of the central business district and residential areas.

The scheme which will be on a volunteer basis is open to residents and organisations at no cost to the council.

In the latest council minutes, the director of engineering services, Engineer Simela Dube, said the local authority was struggling to maintain roads in the city.

"To prevent further deterioration of the network, the Engineering Services Department proposed to introduce an 'Adopt a Road' Scheme. The 'Adopt-A-Road' Scheme was intended to help to maintain and beautify sections of the City of Bulawayo's road network through community members volunteering to sponsor and or undertake road maintenance and rehabilitation works at no cost to Bulawayo City Council," read the minutes.

The department said there were two ways individuals, groups and organisations could get involved.

"Individuals, groups or organisations could volunteer to undertake the works themselves or could instead pay professional contractors to do the work on their behalf," reads the report.

The engineering department said there were various types of adoptions which included litter picking and removal, vegetation control; landscaping, pothole patching and storm-water drain clearing.

Through the scheme volunteers could also embark on graffiti removal, rehabilitating or maintaining road verges, intersections, storm water drainage systems, road furniture, streetlights and sponsoring road rehabilitation and maintenance.

The department proposed that an adopted site may be one kilometre or as agreed between Bulawayo City Council and the applicant(s).

"Council shall look favourable at Adopt a Road Scheme for two years or more. Adopt-A-Road-Scheme participants in good standing may apply for additional sites and agreement periods," reads the report.

The proposed scheme is backed by Section 47(3) of the Roads Act [Chapter 13:18] states:

"A road authority may authorise in writing under such conditions as it may determine the doing of any act prohibited under subsection (2) if it is satisfied that no material damage to the road or prejudice to the public can result from it, and, in the case of an authorisation to do anything prohibited by paragraph (e) or (f) of that subsection, it may require that such specifications as may be set out in writing be complied with."

Councillors lauded the initiative and recommended that the department of engineering services be authorised to engage stakeholders for the purposes of operationalising the scheme.

However, they sought clarification on the ownership of the road after being adopted by a company or an individual.

In response the director of engineering services said the road remained the property of Bulawayo City Council and adoption was for the maintenance of the road at their expense.

"A Road Condition Survey conducted in 2013 showed that 70 percent of the network required heavy rehabilitation (reconstruction and structural overlays).The condition of the city's road network continued to deteriorate due to ageing and lack of timely maintenance activities due to resource constraints," read the report.

The director said presently council concentrated its maintenance programmes on public transport routes, arterial and collector roads, roads leading to institutions and the CBD while the bulk of the network especially local streets were neglected and continue to suffer from unabated condition decline due to resource constraints.