27 Nov 2018

The sun is extensively scorching and the temperatures stretch to abnormal decrease celsius. A heavy workforce is on the ground and no one seems to be bothered. The work has to go on and is indeed going on. 

“The project is on course, it is only thirteen days behind,” director of the department of roads Mr Modisa Segokgo said recently when taking journalists on tour of the Gaborone-Boatle dual carriage way project. 

The P1.1 billion Gaborone-Boatle road construction project is broader part of the government efforts to ease transportation and movement of goods and people along a road commonly known as A1. 

Adjacent to the lanes under construction, a lane has been open for traffic and this is the scene along the about 19 kilometers Gaborone- Boatle road. Along the route, are sights of top notch state of the art machinery, laborers, new tarmac lining, busy heavy plant construction vehicles, dust and often traffic delays. 

The project which started in March last year and has 05 April next year as date of completion entails construction of dual carriage way, construction of two bridges and an interchange at Boatle. 

“The main objective is to decongest A1 road this side,” Mr Modisa said about a road which connect Ramokgwebana in north east and Ramatlabama in the south east. 

At the end of the Boatle interchange construction, A1 road which has the first interchange in in Thapama interchange in Francistown will have the second bite of the cherry, making it a unique route in the country’s road transport system. 

Thapama interchange, often times referred to as Spaghetti is a first of a kind in the country and is a historical landmark in the road infrastructure in the country. 

The project implementation started with the upgrading of the approximately 30 kilometers P1 billion Francistown-Totona road, which included the famous interchange. 

Apart from being a historic statue, the interchanged was constructed with the hope of easing traffic flow in the country’s second city. 

And from the south to the north, A1 is a pinnacle connecting families and, tribes nation and economies from North to South. 

At Ramokgwebana, the commercial route goes into Zimbabwe through to places such Zambia and DRC, making it a strategically important transportation path for goods from South Africa to the rest of southern Africa. 

For the southerners, AI is a direct link into South Africa, connecting people who are historically knotted and only separated by the border line. 

 From Ramatlabama it stretches through the township of Lobatse, capital city Gaborone up to the second city of Francistown. 

“Botswana as a place of destination must have good quality roads infrastructure which we are building,” Mr Segokgo said. 

The route is not only a busy corridor with two interchanges, it is the first tarred road at independence with only five kilometers tarred in Lobatse by the colonial government in preparation of King George IV visit back then. 

Also along A1 road in the not so distant future, Game City Circle will pave way for another interchange according to the director of transport, and the tender has already been awarded. 

All these are correlated efforts to up-gradate the country’s major roads and facilitate easy transportation of goods and services within the country from Southern Africa to the rest of Africa. 

“In the near future the whole of the road to Lobatse (from Boatle) will be upgraded,” Mr Segokgo hinted out. Henceforth the road from Ramatlabama to Ramokgwebana would have completed a chapter of a major facelift. 

Other developments with direct bearing on A1 road geared to offloading traffic into it are the interchanges to be constructed at Rainbow circle and Mass Media cycle in Gaborone, as well as the construction of Gabane-Mmankgodi dual carriage way. 

The enhancement of the country’s road network, eases movement of goods and services within the country landlocked and battling hard to improve its global competiveness. ENDS