Construction work to upgrade 113km of Samfya to Kasaba major road in Zambia from gravel to bituminous has begun with the main contractor being BSBK Limited.
According to the Regional Manager for Road Development Agency (RDA) fir Luapula Province, Eng. Gaston Meleki, the contractor was on site working on the final designs for the road.
Delays on the works had occurred due to technical and administrative challenges however, up to 11.7km of clearing and grubbing had been done since the start of the project.
The road construction project is estimated to cost US $37.57m with funding from the Government of Zambia. Works will include the clearing of bushes, construction of selected road Embankment Layers, Sub-base and Base Layers and Construction of new bituminous surfacing including shoulders.
There will also be the provision of adequate drainage, road markings, traffic signs, guardrails and ancillary works.
The project will also include works on access roads to Lubwe National Assembly Office (1.42km), Lubwe Secondary School (1.04km), Katote School Road (3.6km), and Mwewa-Shikamushile (7.13km), Kasaba Mission Hospital (0.38km) and Ipusukilo Mission loop road (2.6km).
The Samfya to Kasaba road has been divided into two lots with the first lot covering 113km from Samfya to Kasaba via Lubwe and Lot 2 covering 78Km from Musaila to Kasaba with access roads totaling 33.3Km.
The contract for lot 2 has been awarded to Mota-Engil Engenharia e Construcao Africa SA at a sum of US $20,447,551.712.
Construction work on major Road in Zambia is expected to be complete by January 2018.