Transport minister Felix Mhona has ordered Fossil Contracting to re-work the resurfacing of Lorraine Drive Road, Harare, due to shoddy workmanship.
The minister’s orders followed a public outcry over the poor quality of the recently rehabilitated road.
Members of Parliament (MPs) on Wednesday during a Q and A session also voiced their concern over the quality of the road.
Zanu PF MP Supa Mandiwanzira in a supplementary question said the state of Lorraine Drive did not show it was recently rehabilitated.
“My supplementary question relates to the standard and quality of the roads that are being made. Because of the great work that is being done to fix and make the roads to this Parliament Building, we are now having to use some roads that we did not use often. We know that some of these roads were recently upgraded at the government pace.
“For instance, this afternoon, I drove through Lorraine Drive, but the state of that road does not indicate that this road was recently upgraded.
“Minister, to what extent is the ministry supervising the standard and the quality of the roads that are being built? Are there funds being retained on the amounts that are due to the contractors that within a specific period, if the road does not stand or withstand the demands of time, those resources are used to fix those roads?” Mandiwanzira said.
The minister admitted that the contractor had failed to do a proper job.
“For the past weeks, it was topical during our debates and social media circulations where the road (Lorraine Drive) failed dismally. As a ministry, we have summoned the contractor, who has also acknowledged that yes, the road failed.
“For us, we are saying under the Second Republic, we do not pay when the work is not done properly. We have instructed the contractor to work on the road and take corrective measures where the system failed and the type of bituminous products used collapsed.
“Fossil has learnt from that experience and it is not the only road that the contractor has been working on. As we see, the contractor has been attending to a number of roads across the country. The terrain and the nature of the soils and how the road collapsed is something that we interrogated.
Also read: Government Commends National Foods for Reducing Reliance on Imports
“We have agreed that the contractor will take remedial action. We are saying this because we have our own engineers and the public is there to take us to account. We are grateful that yes, we are taking corrections and we endeavour, as we progress and construct our roads so that we do not have such recurrence in terms of road maintenance,” Mhona said.
The contractor is also working on Nemakonde Road (Lomagundi Road).
Mhona responded to another member, Kaipoikulu, who sought answers on the time frame for corrective measures to be taken by Fossil.
“As soon as we open in just a few weeks, then we will revert to Lorraine Drive. Now, it is being used as a detour, as a diversion route, but as soon as we open the link to avoid congesting the traffic, then the contractor will revert to Lorraine Drive.”
“I can say after this month, you will see us back, rehabilitating Lorraine Drive because we will be having access to the Nemakonde Road, which is Lomagundi,” said the Minister.
For comments, Feedback and Opinions do get in touch with our editor on WhatsApp: +27 82 836 5828
