The US $27M rehabilitation of Lusaka-Chirundu Road began back in the late 2000s. The project was developed by the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) and funded by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) through National Road Fund Agency (NRFA).
It involved widening the existing road formation to allow for a cross-sectional geometry of 2×3.5m lanes and 2x2m surfaced shoulders with 0.5m outer shoulder strips to form a road with a width of 12m. As part of the project, the reconstructed road carriageway and shoulders would be surfaced using asphalt concrete.
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The works also involved minor modifications to the horizontal geometry and more significant localized modifications to the road’s vertical geometry. The existing pavement layers would also be reprocessed to form new cement-stabilized sub-base layers. The newly constructed road would have two sections with different layers.
The first section from km110+145 to km121+000 would be constructed with a 150mm thick graded crushed stone base layer with 125mm thick asphalt concrete. The second section from km121+000 to km134+576 on the other hand would be constructed with a 90mm thick dense bituminous macadam base layer with 40mm thick asphalt concrete.
The project was completed in the mid-2010s with China Henan International Corporation (CHICOO), Grontmij A/S, and BICON Zambia Limited as part of the implementation team.
May 2015
Rehabilitation work on the 51 1KM Lusaka Chirundu Road in Zambia underway
Jun 2015
Rehabilitation of Lusaka Chirundu Road is almost complete
Rehabilitation work on the 51.1KM Lusaka Chirundu Road is currently underway with the turn-off to Turnpike complete. The remaining work stands at 99 percent for the inclusion of ancillary and drainage works.
According to the Project Manager for World Bank projects by RDA, Eng Nicholas Mulenga, the road project includes two sections, Link 1 and 2. Work on the road features rehabilitation of the pavement, construction of a Jersey barrier and traffic circles, drainage structures, road markings, and road signs.
Eng Mulenga also noted that the Lusaka Chirundu Road had been divided with a median to remove right turns. A medium which is 3.5m will be from the Makeni turn-off to the Lamasat shopping center roundabout while another barrier which is 0.8m in length will be constructed at the Chilanga Filling Station.
20.1km of the road from the Turnpike to the Escarpment section was recently given to RDA after inspection on the same by RDA, Grontmij A/S, and BICON Zambia Limited. The Lusaka Chirundu Road project will help ease the movement of goods and people on the road which forms part of T2 which has tremendous traffic. The project will be fully complete by June 2015.
