Road Development Agency (RDA) has announced that plans to upgrade the Great North Road to dual carriage way from Lusaka
to the Copperbelt have reached an advanced stage.
In a notice published in the media yesterday RDA said that they would by February 28, 2013 be awarding the contract to the preferred bidder to undertake the project.
In October last year RDA had invited companies to provide consulting services for the techno-economic study, detailed engineering design and tender documents in preparation for the upgrading to dual carriage way of 210km from Lusaka to Kapiri Mposhi.
The tendering documents that were closed in November last year have since been evaluated and the contract would be awarded by February 28.
The construction of the dual carriage way from Lusaka to the Copperbelt would help reduce the high rate of road traffic accidents with the recent one being that involving a Post Bus where more than 50 people died last week in Chibombo.
The move would also make it easier for other road users to overtake trucks which normally use the route to ferry goods to and from the Copperbelt and other neigbouring countries.
Last week more than 50 people died after the bus they were travelling in collided with a truck in Chibombo along the Lusaka Kabwe road.
Meanwhile, the RDA has awarded a contract to Synohydro Zambia Limited to re-engineer the Kapiri Mposhi weighbridge in Central Province at a cost of KR 26.5 million.
RDA spokesperson Loyce Saili confirmed the signing of the contract for the re-engineering of the weigh Bridge in a statement released in Lusaka yesterday.
The Contract was signed on Wednesday February 6, 2013 between RDA and Synohydro Zambia Limited.
Ms Saili said that the re-engineering of Kapiri Mposhi weighbridge would bring relief to bulk transporters who had been complaining about the poor state of the weighbridge for some time.
The scope of work involves construction of delivery and parking areas, construction of a weighbridge house and offices, construction of side and miter drains and construction of filter lanes.
Other works include installation of road signs and road line markings, construction of weighbridge platform and other equipment.
Ms Saili said the works commenced after the signing ceremony and were expected to be carried out within eight months and RDA was confident the contractor would carry out quality work within the contract duration.
Asryt !!! Elyashi ili tulefwaya.Thumbs up guys this is indeed a step in the right direction.Epashili pakuleka.
“Asryt” Irrespective of your comment on the subject, i just love the acronym of the phrase “thats right”. Somebody close used to pronounce it that way.
You’ve made my day buddy!
what about form Lusaka to Livingstone..its still the same..do for both ends..
lusaka to zimba
what of lusaka mongu … lusaka chipata and kapiri nakonde roads?
It is also coming tekanya fye boi..
great stuff.
The real question is handing it to who? A bogus contractor to be supervised by Intercity Kaponya turned Engineering Expert in 90 days Willie Nsanda whose still mourning the retirement of his lover from boxing.
iwe chi colour who told you that when you run an engineering company that will make you an engineer… have you heard of administration affairs…. chopet
so Wilie Nsanda is an administrator, which other company has he administered apart from the buses at intercity? PF are always experimenting that’s the problem.
How do you administer an Engineer / Contractor when you are clueless no wonder Lusaka City is a ghetto because of such clueless Administrators.i guess you are one.
great one
Do you know that Willie NSanda has a Diploma from Zambia Institute of technology?
Please do not judge a person’s qualifications by his behaviour. There are University Graduates like HH who do not behave like graduates.
WAY TO GO! Thank you LT and bloggers who pushed for this. Just goes to show that if we put our heads together, we can achieve great things for our country. I hope LT will follow this development and run regular updates. The best way to honour our fallen brother and sisters in that horrific accident is to ensure we learn lessons and put measures to reduce or prevent such tragedies from happening again. We all know that even dual carriage ways are not the answer to preventing road accidents however they are definitely the answer to preventing deadly head on collusions. I hope this is only the beginning to Zambia’s road revolution.
Even if you put “trual” or quatrual carriage way as long as the drivers and defective vehicles remain there will be no change,accidents will multiply kaili nokudelela bakadelela
as an intervention we have been having road block but nothing has changed in terms of accidents statistics. am sure with improved road infrastructure we going to c a drastic reduction in accidents. i don’t agree with u that defective motor vehicle are the major cause of accident. there factor but not the major cause.
IT IS THE GOOD MOVE
Great move but why always wait for calamity to strike before taking action. Same with Chingola-Kitwe road, an accident happened first. We need a proactive and not a reactive government.
The process has been in the works for a long time. Read the story again. It’s just being speeded up becuz of the emotions running in the country. Let’s give credit where it is due and not just criticise wantonly simply becuz we dont like the decision makers.
We all know that governments make mistakes but when they do good things we must say good job not just to be negative all the time. Even has we make mistakes in our small government (house).
six lanes would still not solve the problem. too many kaponyas on the road.
was the74 year old white a Kaponya
Nice 1 ba mwape.
The kaponya driving the big bus should have hit into the land cruiser, lives would surely have been saved. who drives at 74 years got his part of the cake his too old to be driving such long distances.
I see no reason why someone cannot drive at 74 as long as they are in good nick – however old drivers should have regular health check ups to ensure they are fit to drive.
I’m we all know that south africa has the best road network in the southern region but the baggars drive as the devil is after them and have the highest number of road accidents in the region, so sanity is needed on the roads, whether Kaponya or not
Thats problem of being reactive instead of being proactive. we need to develop a 10 year to 50 year plan for our whole road network. “Piece meal” reactions will not help at all looking at the incremental rate of traffic in Zambia. i gave my diapproval on the kapiri weighbridge during the construction that its was at a wrong place( T junction) and too near the high way. Sometimes i wonder the caliber of our planners and engineers on such issues.
since the government is beyond its depth in solving this road issue we can hire expatriates and redesign our country. look at what our city planners called engineers have done. Our education system is shallow it lacks something that the whites know and will never give us. look at Zimbabwe still looking beautiful. i hate to admit but our leaders and voters are intellectually flawed despite them passing through school. one sign of this flaw is drunkenness,love for dictatorship, failing to receive good advice and bu chende.
What about weighbridge at kafulafuta it reduces congestion at kapiri?
The other contributing factor to the increase of road traffic accidents is Kapiri Weighbridge, it just delays traffic hence people rush trying to make up time they lost at the weighbridge. There are no proper stopping places from CB to LSK can you imagine if there was something like Manda Hill for sure people would be stopping, you just cant drive 5 hours straight you get bored to make matters worse Bus Drivers make two trips a day meaning 20 hours of driving thats more than a flight to UK.
LOL
@concernedcitizen: If you are smart enough you could have seen a very good business opportunity here. Why don’t you “Mr. Genius” setup TRUCK STOPS all along major Zambian highways and make a killing for yourself? But, as usual, you want govt to build such things for you. Where is your initiative, bwana?
Surely you must have seen Truck stops all along major highways the USA (flag), and they are all privately owned and contributing to the US economy through job creation and taxes. So why can’t you go and build the same in Zambia? If lack of TRAVEL STOPS is such a bother to you, please cease the moment and make yourself some good money. Complaining and criticizing without being part of the solution is really useless. So show us all what you made of @concernedcitizen!
Its like Zambia is under siege from some demonic powers, too many people are dying and too many things are going wrong in the country only those who have decided to cover their eyes with fading kwacha notes will disagree.
Indeed, kwati kubuta pa Zed
Its too late lives have already been lost.
Its pointless to jack up RATSA it has never/does not and will never reduce deaths on the roads. Mr sata knows it well and has run out of new ideas to deal with the issue at hand. To claim pondering new ways of reducing accidents on Zambian roads and arrive at apealing to RATSA, Zambia police to jack up as THE SOLUTION is failure to master the issue and hopelessly be blank in the head for a solution. Dual carriage has never been mentioned in PF mantra, as usual to “Dont Kubeba’ deception of promises, stealing MMD plans on development plans
musula ubo chi colour, which MMD plans which they failed to implement when they were in power for 20 years. namazai iwe
ba PF also Kitwe-Chingola dual carriage way was scheduled to start in January according to the reports you gave sometime back. The issue is quiet now tell us how far you have gone. our Mental Patients (MPs) Simuusa and Katema have achieved nothing in their period.
Dual Carriage is the only way forward because traffic on our roads has changed and will not go back to the sixties. Just do it and now!
Synohydro Zambia Limited given contract to re-engineer weigh bridge, good. The only issue is if the contract is given to a Zambian contractor, worse still a Minister’s company then trouble starts. If it is to a foreigner, its ok. But how are you going to empower locals and retain the cash within boarders if all major jobs must go to foreign companies?
Paradoxical sitution. When you want quality, speedy work you tend to favour foreigners, especially the Chinese. On the other hand, Zambian contractors will cry mutule… Awe ubuteko tabuletwafwa…instead of building capacity in its own people, retaining money inhouse as a form of citizen empowerment. But when contracts, they just fake, fluff the work. Mediocrity is the ruling principle. The pace is painstakingly slow (tomorrow investments). Then we go back to foreign contractors and money goes out…tida, lol!
So it takes 53 pipo to die first before they Govt think of dual carriage way??
It was planned a long time ago buit did not receive the political impetus for implementation. Read the story again.
I want a comment from mushota here. Please dont just comment on negative things but also comment on such positive developments. This is a clear sign of commitment to meeting aspirations of people by PF govenment in general and SATA in particular
How about the KTK- CNC Rd, RDA/Govt????
Its indeed a good move,up to chiliz.definately a reduced accident rates.Tulangeni ba sata.
If it means investment into reponse includes buying helicopters for the police which this country once had lets do it. No AMBULANCES or Emergency rescue vehicles on the scene. People handling bodies like animals. No body bags. No equipment to cut the mangled bus. What a shame. I shudder to think what would happen if we had an earthquake.
Also many drivers carrying passengers will be drunk drinking soft drinks laced with spirits all the way.
Apart from dual carriage ways make it prohibitive for large haulage on our roads. The trucks which belong to the rich guys are damaging our roads and causing so much misery. Let them pay through the nose so that people opt to use rail carriage which should have concessionary rates. Why should copper ore and coal be transported by road? A single train…
Good contribution but the railway is just being worked on.
i have just come from chingola on my way to Lusaka. There is no sign of a contractor on the chingola Kitwe road. no machinery, nothing is happening on this road. We were told that a contractor was identified by RDA so where is he? Not even a poster is in sight showing that works will commence. The Road has deteriorated and more lives will be lost
Dishonest is PF’s motto, lying is what they live for….
The rains boss, we shall start soon. Bear in mind also that mobilising equipment can take up to 3 months.
Fire fighting all the way; November to February bid evaluation!! Very bad prioritising strategy. However, congratulations at least you are working. Publicise the schedule of road development. RTSA – commence “Hazard perception” training UK style for drivers. Its one of the best attributes that Zambian driver’s lack.
It is called Defesive Driving. Yes it must be included in the driving lessons. for this there is no law required. it is just a condition that can be included by RTSA.
THE ROAD ACCIDENT FUND BY RTSA IS A GOOD PROPOSAL. THE INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE NOT HELPING ACCIDENT VICTIMS ENOUGH. WE DEPENDANTS LOSING BREAD WINNERS DUE ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS WE NEED THIS FUND AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
It’s true the two chingola MPs are mental patients, look at the potholes along kitwe chingola road. Honestly do we need ba Sata to intervern. Awe the two mental patients Katema & Simuusa should resign on moral grounds. Sometimes you even wonder how they perform as Ministers when the have lamentably failed to deliver in their constituencies. Ba plse come and visit chingola once so that you can fire the two mental patients.They are the ones causing accidents, ni ba satan. twanaka ba Sata please help us. ala ama elections are just nearby this time around things will be completely different.
THIS IS THE FORWARD LOOKING AND THINKING WHICH HAVE BEEN MISSING PROM PREVIOUS GOVERNMENTS. LONG SATA.
KK MAY NOT HAVE PRODUCED OIL FROM GRASS OR FAILED TO IMPLEMENT TOLL GATES, BUT THE MERE THOUGHT OF THE IDEA IS PROGRESSIVE ENOUGH. IT MEANS A LOT – SOMEONE IS SERIOUSLY THINKING ABOUT IT…
I, AND MY GENERATION, WOULD NOT MIND LIVING UNDER CHINESE RULE AS LONG AS THERE IS TANGIBLE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN THE NATION RATHER THAN BUILDING FLATS FOR PRESIDENT’S KIDS OR UNDER PRETENTIOUS ASPIRING PLUNDERER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MILLIONAIRES AND PASTORS.
LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE’S PRESIDENT, LONG LIVE…
ALL THESE PROJECT PROPOSALS HAVE BEEN AWAITING THE SELFLESS LEADERSHIP OF BA TATA.
FACT – THEY HAVE BEEN GATHERING DUST ON KK’S SHELVES EVER SINCE 1992!
LONG LIVE KK,
LONG LIVE MCS.
ABASH HH AND HIS FELLOW PLUNDERERS.
Chainama case!!!!
LEST ZAMBIANS FORGET THAT
KK DESIGNED THE FIRST DUAL CARRIAGE WAY BETWEEN NDOLA AND KITWE.
KK DESIGNED THE FIRST TOOL GATES IN ZAMBIA.
KK IN DESPERATION FOR THE LOVE OF MOTHER ZAMBIA, THOUGHT ABOUT PRODUCING OIL FROM GRASS ETC.
THEN CHILUBA CAME AND BECAME SO BUSY GIVING LESSONS TO BLUE EYED BOYS LIKE hh ON HOW TO BE RICH, HOW TO BECOME LANDLORDS, HOW TO MANAGE REAL ESTATES, FLATS, HOUSES USING GOVERNMENT MONEY.
RB CAME TO CONSTRUCT HOUSES AND FLATS FOR HIS FAMILY.
ZAMBIA BECAME A SANGWAPO STATE THANKS TO MCS.
JUST A SUGGESTION : WHY DON’T WE MAKE OUR ROADS FREE OF LONG HAUL TRUCKS
BETWEEN (6PM TO 6AM) TO LET PUBLIC BUSES AND FAMILY CARS MOVE
UNIMPEDED AT NIGHT LIKE IN BOTSWANA?
Way to go but there is need for RDA to speed up their evaluations. You cant just take the whole year doing evaluations. RDA has not updated the people of zambia on the chingola-kitwe road and yet they had announced sometime last year in august that the contractor wud move on site but alas, as usual zambian engineer in sleep mode.
I agree with you on RDA’s speed or is it slowness on evaluations. If you follow what they said on the Ndola – Mufulira road, you will see that actual road works will only commence in two years time.
Kitwe – Chingola – Phase 2
Chingola – Chilibombwe – Phase 3
Chingola Mufulira – Phase 4
Lusaka Kafue – Phase 5
Kafue – Chirundu Phase 6
Xxxx
XXX
xxxxx
Lusaka – Mongu.. Phase 10!!
Here comes more jobs! Lets give it to the Qualified candidate, not names, right people who will do the job properly so we can drive on those roads forever!Start interviews now.
KNEE JERK DEVELOPMENT DREAMS. HOLD ON, IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. YOU SIMPLY CANNOT UNDERTAKE SUCH A MAMMOTH TASK OF CONSTRUCTING A DUAL CARRIAGE FROM LUSAKA TO COPPERBELT WITH SUCH CASUAL APPROACH.
So they had to wait for people do die for them to speed up things that would have been done ages ago..’bloody *****s’.I hope you don’t give the contracts to your kaponyas to constructs roads with 6 months life span.
Great job colleagues! Now we must extend it to Livingstone. Also, we must have Great East Road expanded to dual carriage way and “Great West Road” to Mongu. Later we can have similar roads extended to Katima Mulilo, Sesheke (to the bridge going to Namibia), Kitwe-Zambezi/Mwinilunga and another Tuta making a twin to Luapula. Best wishes Zambia!
And kitwe to chingola dual ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
The rains boss, we shall start very soon. We are mobilising.
Viva PF but palipaba ifikopo pa LT blog kwati balifilowa Vintu mufumbenge
Good job, well done to the government, RTC must also consider working with the council to put speed cameras on the roads, introduce a point system that will penalize drivers for going over the limit by deducting points on the licence. Repeated offenders/ drivers who exhaust his/ her points, would subsequently be suspended… this includes drunk and driving
Is this govt waiting for another recording breaking accident to start working on kitwe – chingola. I hope the attention has not shifted to lsk kapiri as good as the project maybe good, let’s stick to plans and promises
The rains boss, we shall start very soon.
am tired of rda announcements always in the future if it was a weatherfirm there prediction would be zero i dont know how they want to impress with this will be done its always in the next few months useless we want action
When did the RDA Advertise for this contract? who are the consultants who designed and who will supervise? Which Funds ? this not in the 2013 budget .Please PF you dont own this country you NEED to do things correctly. People wake up . These guys are are taking us to some serious doom