Luveve Road rehab nears completion

REHABILITATION works along Bulawayo's Luveve Road are progressing well with the local authority saying they are now 85 percent towards completion with over US$700 000 having been used to date.

The rehabilitation works started in January last year and encompass pothole patching, localised pavement reconstruction, overlays, reinstatement of carriageway markings, drainage and other general maintenance on a 2,2 kilometre section that had become untraffickable.

The work suffered significant delays dues to incessant rains that caused water logging and expansive clay as well as disagreements between the local authority and a contractor who was expected to supply a road paving machine over the currency to settle the deal. According to the latest council report, the local authority resorted to using its in-house teams to do the project and has completed 85 percent of the full amount of work.

"Westbound traffic lane earthworks were substantially completed, both lanes temporarily opened over the Christmas-New Year's break to minimise inconvenience to the motoring public and surfacing of eastbound lanes was substantially complete at 90 percent.

"Challenges faced include ground water, reclaimed water mains, sewer pipes, expansive and collapsible materials, delayed payments, working near live carriageway, working in a built up area with high pedestrian traffic and batching plant breakdowns," reads part of the report.

The local authority said the estimated cost of absolute minimum works had been pegged at US$1,2 million of which expenditure to date has been pegged at US$717 649 and $707,1 million.

"Outstanding payments to date are US$659 346 which is payable in local currency, overall works progress is at 85 percent towards completion. Materials on site include crusher run material (2 000 tonnes), MC30 (1 840 litres), quarry stone (1 475 tonnes), Bitumen (86 600 litres) and Stable 60 (10 000 litres), seven millimetres stone (184,38 tonnes); and three millimetres stone (184,38 tonnes)," reads the report.

Meanwhile, the city was last year allocated $817 million under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP) for both routine and periodic maintenance works for the 2023 financial year, with the figure revised to $4,8 billion in August.

"Amount disbursed to date was ZWL$2,5 billion and the balance was $2,2 billion. The remaining balance if released would be utilised in completing Waverley Street rehabilitation works and pothole patching city wide.

"The 2023 Zinara allocation were utilised for; pothole patching city wide ($1,4 billion), payment for Woodville road overlay works ($589 million) and ongoing Waverley street rehabilitation works ($2,7 billion) where overall works progress are 65 percent completed," reads the report.

The local authority has further identified Lobengula Street, Herbert Chitepo Street and Fort Street, between First Avenue and Fourth Avenue, as requiring urgent rehabilitation works.

The Bulawayo City Council has indicated that over 75 percent of its road network was in need of urgent rehabilitation at a cost of US$700 million which it doesn't have prompting the Government roll up its sleeves and extend a hand through the President Mnangagwa initiated nationwide ERRP.

In Bulawayo, 65 major roads were earmarked for rehabilitation under the facility at an estimated cost of $625 million.

The facility saw the rehabilitation of a number of roads in the city, the major one being Siyepambili Drive.