Maravi

RDA not impressed with road works in Ndola

RDA not impressed with road works in Ndola
By Fridah Nkonde in Ndola
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 10:59 CAT

ROAD Development Agency (RDA) director Michael Mulenga says he is not impressed with the road works being done by Fratelli Locci, a company contracted to rehabilitate roads in Ndola.

Dr Mulenga, however, said he is confident that the road works will be completed by June this year and ruled out the possibility of terminating Fratelli Locci's contract.

During his visit to urban roads rehabilitation and upgrading projects in Ndola and Luanshya yesterday, Dr Mulenga said termination of the contract would not be the best way to go although the completion of road works had been delayed by six months.

"The roads were supposed to be completed by November last year but I am informed that the main challenges faced by the contractor have been the accessing of materials for rehabilitation. There has been a shortage of these material especially bitumen which is bought from South Africa," he said.

Dr Mulenga said it was good that the contractors had subcontracted the works so as to create jobs for the local people.

He said the contractors were imparting skills in those that had been subcontracted and that RDA was making sure that the road works were inspected from time to time.

"We have consultants who go round checking the work and we also test materials to make sure the roads are of high quality," he said.

Dr Mulenga urged the contractors to speed up their work because the stakeholders were only interested in seeing the end product.

And Fratelli Locci Limited company project manager Stefano Silanus said the works were going on well because the rainy season was slowly coming to an end.

Silanus said the rains were the biggest obstacle, adding that they were sure of completing the roads by June this year.

"We are working very well with RDA. We had challenges of buying construction material because our major supply is South Africa but we are pushing works and we are confident that we will soon have the roads completed," said Silanus.

Meanwhile, RDA regional engineer Thomas Zimba said they were making progress on the works and that they were trying to catch up because the project had taken some time to be completed.

Zimba assured stakeholders that the project was moving on well, adding that they were going to deliver as intended.

He said most of the roads that they were working on were very important because they would decongest the city centre.

"The designs are of high standard and most of the roads being worked on will help decongest town centre. The Twapia, Lubuto road known as Kantolomba road, Chipulukusu road which is 4.3 km, and kalewa raod, are almost complete. Most of the works have been done," said Zimba.

And Luanshya City Council director of engineering Frank Mwakanandi thanked RDA for considering the town in the project.

Mwakanandi said most of the roads in Luanshya were in a deplorable state, adding that the council couldn't raise funds to rehabilitate them.

"We just hope that this project is extended to phase two. Major works have been done by Gomes which has been contracted to do the work. What we can say is that all works on the road in town are done and we are only remaining with Roan and Mpatamato," he said.

Mwakanandi said the contractor, Gomes, also faced the challenge of heavy rains and the supply of bitumen in the implementation of the project.

Labels: RDA, ROADS

posted by MrK @ 5:06 PM