PPC Zimbabwe lobbies govt on concrete roads

LOCAL cement producer, PPC Zimbabwe, has started lobbying the government to move away from asphalt roads and turn to concrete roads, saying the latter were more durable.

Another cement manufacturer, Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe, recently made similar proposals.

Speaking at a PPC Zimbabwe concrete roads awareness workshop in Harare yesterday, PPC group operations manager Mavellas Sibanda said concrete roads were cheaper in the long run.

"We want to raise awareness and we have noticed what is topical now are the potholes and the other issues, the difficulties that we are encountering, especially after the good rains that we had. So, we are saying there is a solution that uses cement and that solution is concrete roads," he said.

"The common lifespan of the concrete road is 30 years upwards, with minimal maintenance, but you would find with the other traditional ways of making roads, you have to intervene maybe plus or minus 10 years depending on whether it is a high volume road. So, it is that more frequent intervention that would then make concrete roads cheaper when you compare to that."

Research has shown that the advantages of concrete roads, besides being cheaper in the long-term and being durable, are that they are considerably less prone to wear and tear.

Wear and tear defects include rutting, cracking, stripping, loss of texture and potholes that can occur with flexible pavement surfaces.

Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) chairman, Albert Mugabe said they had completed the report on the National Roads Conditions Survey undertaken last year and submitted it to Transport minister Joram Gumbo last week.

"It (the report) has given us, as Zinara, a lot of guidance in terms of where to prioritise and we will be relying on it quite heavily going forward. With specific reference to concrete roads, we certainly welcome the initiative," he said.

"I had not heard about it that they (PPC) are also coming in and exploring the prospect of stronger participation in road construction, but we certainly welcome it and encourage them. I will also be asking Zinara's technical guys to engage them (PPC) in the same way that we have been engaging with Lafarge."

Before the report was completed, estimates put the cost of rehabilitation of the country's road network at $5 billion.

However, Mugabe said that figure was now as high as $6 billion.

Currently, the country mainly uses asphalt roads, which need maintenance at least every eight to 10 years.