21 July 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican government is satisfied at the pace of building the new road bridge over the Zambezi at Caia, even though it can no longer be completed on schedule.
The bridge will link Caia on the south bank, to Chimuara on the north bank. It is part of the country's main north-south highway, and when it is finished vehicles will no longer have to queue (sometimes for days) for the ferry across the river.
Public Works Minister Felicio Zacarias visited the bridge site on Saturday and expressed his satisfaction at the pace and quality of the work.
The Portuguese consortium building the bridge, formed by the companies Mota-Engil and Soares da Costa began work in March 2006, and had a deadline of 36 months in which to finish the bridge. The bridge is now 60 per cent complete, but it looks impossible to complete the task by March 2009. Work was delayed at the start of this year by major flooding on the Zambezi.
Zacarias told reporters that, if the work was not completed on time, this could not be blamed on the contractor, but on the fact that the Zambezi valley has experienced serious flooding in two consecutive years.
As for the standards to which the bridge is being built, Zacarias told a Mozambican television crew "there's no such thing as "African standards" or "European standards". There are only acceptable standards".
"In general terms, we are happy. There is no complaint, and all payments are in order. This is a perfect work", said Zacarias.
The bridge is to be 2,376 metres long, 16 metres wide, and will include 2,400 metres of access roads. It will have two lanes and walkways for pedestrians on each side.
The work is budgeted at 78 million US dollars, provided by the European Commission, Italy, Sweden, Japan and the Mozambican government itself.
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