21 Aug 2018

Construction of quality high grade by-pass roads is said to be the way to go.

Speaking at a kgotla meeting at Mabeleapodi where he consulted the residents about the construction of a by-pass road from their village through Tshimoyapula to connect to A1 road in Serule, Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Kitso Mokaila said it had been observed that by-pass roads were often of lower quality, yet freight companies used them, which damaged them quicker.

To address the oversight, the minister said from now onwards, by-pass roads must be of high quality since it made business sense for cargo-carrying vehicles to use them as the shortest routes to their destinations to save costs. 

He informed residents of the affected villages that it was part of his ministry’s plans to decongest A1 road wherever possible by construction shortcuts and alternative routes, upon observations that Batswana were buying cars at an alarming rate with over 44 000 vehicles purchased annually.

“Consequently we want to construct these by-pass roads at the same grade as A1 road,” Mr Mokaila said.

He said in the past, some roads were constructed at a grade that catered for smaller vehicles, only to find that trucks started using them at high volumes.

The minister cited the Shashemooke to Mathangwane road, by-passing Francistown, as one that was constructed at the same grade as A1.. 

He said the construction of the 68km Mabeleapudi-Tshimoyapula-Serule road, at a cost of P397.7 million , which started on May 14, was expected to be completed in May 2020.

Minister Mokaila said the road was a key developmental project and was undertaken by Unik Construction with Herbco Technical Services as consulting engineers.

He said the road did not only decongest the A1 road stretching from Ramokgwebana to Ramatlabama, but provided a shortcut to some places like Serowe and Letlhakane, which therefore saved time and fuel.

On other issues, Mr Mokaila said government would seek some loan facility to upgrade the Francistown-Nata-Sehitwa-Mohembo road, which he said was in a bad state and unusable.

He also said that in future, his ministry would not award tenders until everything was in place such as relocation of services and compensating land owners to avoid project delays, which resulted in cost overruns at the expense of government. 

He warned of punitive action against contractors that failed to deliver projects as per specifications, adding that contractors were also at liberty to take government to court if their efforts to get their grievances sorted hit a snag. 

He suggested that relocation of services, environmental impact assessment inter alia should rather be a stand-alone project, which would pave way for smooth implementation of projects. 

Minister Mokaila appealed to those affected by the construction of the roads to make way peacefully and seek redress, if any, whilst the projects take off.

Meanwhile, he said he had held bilateral talks with his South African counterpart on how best the two countries could work together in improving access to aid businesses between them. 

Amongst other things, he said it would be beneficial for both parties to work together to improve the state of the Martin’s Drift Bridge.

He said that the construction of the Kazungula Bridge would make Botswana a gateway to business, adding that government’s intention is to reverse the current scenario where 80 percent of freight is by road whilst the remaining 20 is by rail to ease congestion and road damages. ENDS