The Sunday News
Sharon Chimenya, Masvingo Correspondent
THE Masvingo City Council is lobbying the Government to incorporate Chimusana Bridge across the Mucheke River into the Masvingo-Beitbridge Road dualisation project to ease congestion at the main Mucheke Bridge.
The local authority is failing to raise over US$3 million for the rehabilitation of the Chimusana Bridge.
The low-lying single lane bridge links Mucheke suburb with the Central Business District and its rehabilitation is expected to help ease congestion at the main Mucheke Bridge along the Masvingo -Beitbridge Road where long queues are experienced during morning and evening peak hours.
At the moment the Chimusana Bridge cannot be used during the rain season as it gets flooded and poses great risk to residents using it. The rains have caused congestion at the main Mucheke Bridge as there is no other access road into the CBD and calls for the urgent rehabilitation of the Chimusana Bridge have been made louder.
Masvingo Mayor, Councillor Collen Maboke during his state of the roads address said the council was failing to upgrade the Chimusana Bridge and the gravel access road due to the financial difficulties being experienced by the city.
“Another issue of concern is the delays arising from congestion at Mucheke Bridge. The bridge is now a bottleneck in the movement of local, national and international traffic. An attempt by council to address this bottleneck by constructing an additional high-level bridge at Chimusana Bridge stalled after funding could not be secured,” he said.
“Estimates in 2012 for the construction of the bridge and related link roads were placed at US$3,5 million. The council is now engaging the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development to include the bridge as part of the ongoing Harare-Beitbridge Road Upgrading project.”
To ease congestion on the main bridge this festive season the local authority has encouraged residents to embark on ride sharing.
“As a city we are advocating for ride-sharing and ride-hailing as possible options to reduce single occupant vehicle trips and improve safety during the peak hour when the taxi services can’t keep up with demand. The option can possibly make commuting more convenient and economical.”
Meanwhile, the mayor said that roads have been severely affected and now have wide potholes and eroded edges from the excessive rains. Drains have been overwhelmed and are overflowing and in particular in Runyararo West, houses have been flooded affecting livelihoods.
Traffic flow has also been severely affected by the overflowing of culverts leading to residents spending several hours waiting to go home.
“There is need for funding to address the city-wide challenge of collapsed roads. A recent assessment put the cost of repairing the city’s roads at just over US$50 million. The cost has certainly gone up given the condition of the roads today. However, the challenge has always been on the funding for the roads which is grossly inadequate.
Zinara disbursements for 2020 were just over $4 million, approximately US$49 000 while the allocation for 2021 is improved at $43,6million equivalent to US$533 000 but is still 1 percent of the needs of the city,” he said.
