By Wallen Simwaka
FORTY concrete bridges will be built on the 35 kilometre Mongu-Tapo-Kalabo stretch, instead of the initial plan of putting up bailey bridges across the Zambezi plain.
The construction of the K1.25 trillion Mongu-Kalabo road is one of Zambia’s most expensive undertaking in road infrastructure development and the change of the engineering design is meant to put in place a durable and strong engineering design.
On average, the cost of building a tarred road in the rest of the country is K5 billion per kilometre, but in Western Province and Mongu, Kalabo in particular, the construction cost is averaging K60 billion for every kilometre tarred because of the complicated sandy and swampy terrain.
The people of Mongu and Kalabo have since time immemorial depended on water transport, mostly canoes and banana boats because what is currently called a road is nothing but a stretch of sand dunes.
The Road Development Agency (RDA) says the engineering design has changed because there are certain construction aspects which demand the revision of the initial construction plan.
The RDA team was in Western Province to conduct an on-the- spot check of the progress on road construction.
The construction of the Mongu-Kalabo road is being done by a Chinese company, AVIC International Holding Co-operation.
The rehabilitation of the road sector in the province is one of the biggest economic boosts, apart from revamping education and health infrastructure.
RDA head of public relations Loyce Saili said in Mongu on Sunday that a 500-metre trial embankment has survived one rainy season and perennial flooding.
Ms Saili said with what has been noted in the trial embankment, the construction design will have to be modified to suit the terrain on which the road is being constructed.
Ms Saili said the contractor had raised the 500-metre trial embankment to about six meters above the flooded plains, which has now been able to withstand the floods.
The construction of roads in Western Province has only been active in the last six dry months, after which contractors will be forced to demobilise because the plains get flooded.
Ms Saili said the change of the design also means the contractor will bring in more equipment to the site so that the works can be speeded up.
The Mongu-Kalabo road will link the two towns to neighbouring Angola and this would open up trade between Zambia and Angola.
President Banda late last year flagged off the construction works on the Mongu-Tapo-Kalabo road and underscored Government’s commitment to reducing poverty in the country through infrastructure development.
Ms Saili said plans for the rehabilitation of the Mongu-Kaoma road have progressed and are now at procurement level.
The RDA has already advertised the rehabilitation of the 260 kilometres Mongu-Kaoma road and the tender process will be closing within a week.
40 concrete imifolo.. no comment.
RB HAS REALLY DELIVERED FOR WESTERN PROVINCE ON THIS ONE!
IMAGINE K60BILLION PER KILOMETRE THATS THE COST OF 12 KILOMETRES ANYWHERE ELSE IN ZAMBIA…WOW!!!!!!
WE ARE VOTING FOR YOU RB….THIS IS WHAT WE NEED
WE ARE EVEN CHANGING OUR DON’T KUBEBA SLOGAN TO CONFUSE SATA THAT WE’RE BEHIND HIM AND YET IN THE BOOTH WE WILL VOTE FOR MMD
1km = K60bn
35km=K2.1tn. Why is the govt cheating us that K1.25tn will finish the whole 35km stretch. Thats the goodness with mathematics; you can see a lie and the truth.
gov got a discount kaili.
It makes sense but we are taking too long thus tempting our people to consider the whole exercise more political than economic. Good that we minimize blocking water which is fast moving and exerting so much force on embarkments. If Zambia had resources, Mongu-Tapo would require whole concrete bridge without emarkments. Several factors including Zambezi river changing course along the plain have to be taken care of too. Otherwise let us get going time is running out.
# 3 I hate arithmetic. Billion is 9 zeros, and K60 billion will be 12 million American DOLLARS per Zambian kilometer of road construction. OR is it $1000 per meter or K5 million per meter? What kind of material MMD are using, is it copper on the roads and just the common cheap tar? Heeeee… Aikona mwe!
Am still voting for Sata and PF FOR SURE
lets hope they dont put up a bridge even where there is no water ka. These election campaigns kaya. Just cheating voters.
No. 6 MAILO. Glad you are still voting for Sata. That is your prerogative. Are you able to contribute more to the subject at hand than a throw away remark. This is a relatively expensive project and requires more serious analysis. For example I would like to see the business case for it. Opening up trade routes with Angola is certainly a plus and will greatly help our citizens there. It may be great for tourism as well. Only I am not sure there is a road to connect to in Angola. I do not think it is necessarily a political issue. I certainly do not see what SATA has to do with it.
I am no engineer , bati 40 brigdes. Can some one acertain to this ! Sounds to excessive if not exaggeration . How many rivers are there in that area !!!
You might as well construct a 35 km tunnel with those figures!!
Zed engineers, how many times are you going to change the design of this road kansi??, or sorry, is it chinese engineers. Try Germany engineers and yu will see that being reduced to chikwakwa or even RE.
our university holds all disciplines in high esteem because they all have something important to contribute to society.
Building a road from the Copperbelt to western province could open up Zambia than concentrating on the long cut.Similarly Serenje to Eastern provincecouls open up up Zambia and shorten journey.The other is building is one thing maintaning is another.It is going to cost 20times to redo roads in Zambia which have seen years of neglect and have been washed away.GRZ concentrated on repairing roads in Lusaka and forgot other places.
40 bridges for a 35km stretch
is equivalent to a bridge per 875 metres. Notice there is no ‘kilo’ anymore. 875 metres, bridge. How many rivers cross this road kanshi or is it drainages?
We should not have sold Chilanga Cement because we are now subject to price increases based on the speculative nature of private business. The price of cement will shoot up in order for the cement factory owners to cash in from such projects.
#13 and if each bridge is 875 meters long then the whole road will be a bridge. It looks like most Zambians cannot calculate hence the government is not even scared or thinking twice about these billions they keep talking about. Where were these figures before this year? The MMD these days are pronouncing in Billions. Just wait for ZNBC news tonight and see how many billions are going to be mentioned. Since these “project”looks like will not finish this year, are they going to continue next year? there are projects that seem to stall after elections for example the Kasama Mansa short cut is only worked during elections and has been so for many years incomplete
why not just build a proper water channel? its still a modern way of transportation!!!! how do we get things from other continents? its even cheaper! this same road will fail again and the what? lost monies. Just buy boats and widen the canal chapwa!
Some bloggers are too ignorant. One wonders which geography they learned to since they don’t know the geography of their country and are too dull to consult an atlas. Learn to research before you comment. Wangulani @ 4 sounds more knowledgeable than the the usual call boys who only know the bus stations. VIVA RRRRRRRRRRRR…BBBBBBBBBBBBB and Development. Thats what we call fulfilling the LEGACY of late LPM
Jeez! Seems everybody here is an expert on road building!
Ba #17. Don’t f.o.o.l yourself. A 35km road cannot have 40 bridges. The its even better they tell us that the whole road will be a bridge instead of cheating people. There are some of us who are learned and we go through each figure they tell us thoroughly and see if it makes sense.
These guys are trying to cheat us with their 40 bridges.Recently, they cheated us with solar geysers & free electricity connection for all households.They will be shocked this year because even villagers are enlightened on development now.Even if you try to cheat us with imaginery bridges, power belongs to the people & change is inevitable this year.
The terrrain between the Mongu & kalabo is very complex.Its made worse by flooding during rain season. What we need are few bridges which span over long distances. The bridges must have marine oriented foundations such as deep piling to support significant heights of the bridges. Anything short of these will see those 40 bridges washed away unless the design takes into account the long and very high bridges and + deep foundations). If the motive behind is sincere its a welcome project. I must also mention that its worth considering bringing in contractors with experience in marine construction. We dont want a repeat of what happened in the past when Ludwig Sondashi failed to account for K700billion allocated for the same project at a time he was Minister of work and supply under Chiluba
#19, you are very correct, its better to say the entire length of the road should bridged. makes a lot of sense from the engineering point of view.
Mr. SATA who is good at delivering can do even better. He is an action packed man who never does his development projects in the election year year as way of “corrupting” the electorate. Vote for MICHAEL!
dont involve bembas when building. they will steal all the bridges
you can say things “will” happen until you run out of breath, it doesn’t make any difference to the real situation
@Quiet an alternative BUT you are still breaking my ribs.Reminds me of the tunnel under the English Channel that connects France to UK
Did Zambia just acquire a new province that we have to construct such an amount of bridges in one year? Or did Banda just realize that even people in that area are Zambians too? Seems like such negligence is reason enough to implement the Barotse Agreement. Seems like MMD forgot about developing such places, but were busy building a road that leads to where animals live. Mfuwe Game Park that RB gave priority to some years back. If one place (Mongu to Kalabo) needed 40 bridges, does that seem like the all area has been neglected by RB and MMD?
Well done Grz i know chinese cant let us down