10 Feb 2021

The Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Thulaganyo Segokgo, has told Parliament that maintenance of the Tutume-Maitengwe Road is underway.

The minister said the current maintenance plan was to overlay 22km of the road with asphalt, reseal 27km, and reconstruct 2km (with asphalt surfacing) including road marking the entire stretch of the road.

According to Minister Segokgo, the lifespan of a road designed and constructed according to standard was 20 years. He said a road  deteriorated over time depending on the nature and amount of traffic.

To ensure a longer lifespan of the road, he said resealing was done and where the road needed to be strengthened overlay was also done to withstand loads for a longer duration while reconstruction was done where the road had shown complete failure.

He also said the project was currently delayed with 20km of the planned activities done further noting that the delays were mainly attributed to poor performance by the contractor.

“My ministry is currently engaged with the contractor to resolve the performance issues in order that the project is completed.

He was answering questions by Member of Parliament for Nkange who wanted an update on the status of the Tutume Maitengwe Road with clarifications on the life span of the road including why resealing was preferred over construction and the current state of resealing and why construction is on a start stop mode. BOPA