Construction of two more bridges has been completed, taking the total to 11 out of the 15 needed for the Mbudzi Interchange and associated works south of Harare. The bridges will be opened to traffic this Friday.
The two bridges and roads are on Amalinda Road and the Harare Drive missing link. The interchange is made up of 15 bridges, with 13 directly on the interchange, and two more on Amalinda Road and Harare Drive. By last month, 11 of the 15 bridges had been completed.
The Mbudzi Interchange is at the intersection of Simon Mazorodze, Chitungwiza and High Glen Roads that feed traffic from western Chitungwiza and many old and new suburbs into Harare city centre, as well as the heavy national and regional traffic on the Harare-Masvingo Highway.
Construction of the interchange and surrounding roads is being carried out by Tefoma Construction, a consortium set up by Tensor Systems, Fossil Contracting and Masimba Construction. Previously, the intersection was managed by a roundabout, but increasing traffic volumes caused congestion, especially during morning and evening peak hours.
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona stressed that the country's largest single road interchange was being steadily constructed as part of the continuous upgrade of the entire road system.
"On Friday, we will be opening our very two important roads again, under the Mbudzi Interchange, where people were saying maybe, because synonymous with the name Mbudzi, they thought we were just playing games, but the Second Republic is there to deliver. And you will see us opening very two important bridges, the Amalinda Bridge and the Harare Drive Bridge.
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"We will not be behind in terms of our schedule as we programme within the Ministry. What we are saying to the people of Zimbabwe is, be patient with us as we try to rehabilitate all our roads," he said.
Minister Mhona reiterated that they will attend to all roads countrywide.
"The idea behind this is to say we need to rehabilitate all our roads countrywide, and we have got close to 90 000 km road network. But we will not work alone. We have Zinara in our midst who have been championing the release of funds paid into Zinara. You used to know how they would use funds for their hairdos and gym, but now with the advent of this robust board under the leadership of Zinara chairperson Dr George Manyaya, we have seen that the disbursement of funds is being executed with speed, and accountability to the citizenry is what we are emphasising," he said.
