The government of Zimbabwe is set to select five contractors in a shortened tender process for the refurbishment of the Harare-Beitbridge Highway beginning next month. This comes after Khato Civils and South Zambezi of South Africa was awarded a tender to dualise the Beitbridge-Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway by Government.
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Engineer Joel Biggie Matiza, announced the reports and said that a fresh US $150m purse will be announced in a supplementary Budget soon to fund the project.
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Harare-Beitbridge Highway
The Harare-Beitbridge Highway surveying was done and dusted to pave way for the multi-million dollar project. Construction of the road will be undertaken over a 3 year period and implemented under a Build Operate and Transfer arrangement running for 25 years. The scope of the work being covered includes full dualisation of the road, widening and rehabilitation of the existing road and construction of 37 new two lane bridges and eight toll gates.
The widening of the Harare-Masvingo road, which has been on the cards since 2002, eventually took-off in February 2017 with 10km stretches in Beatrice and Chivhu. According to the Minister they will use local contractors who have done well in previous road construction projects.
“We will be looking at those contractors and then we partition the road. We are going through a shortened tender process so that by mid-August, we are good to go. We intend to to complete works on the 585km Harare-Beitbridge highway by 2023 since the first phase, which entails rehabilitation and widening of the existing road, does not take time.
