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Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
Government and Harare City Council have moved to ease congestion through the construction of flyovers, roundabouts and widening of problematic roads.

Construction of the Mbudzi flyover is set to begin by January next year after Government flighted the tender.

Harare City Council is already upgrading the bypasses to be used during the construction of the overpass.

Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo recently tasked council to make provision for modern roads in their review of the master plan.

In an interview, council chief engineer of works George Munyonga confirmed the development.

He said council was working with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development on the Mbudzi roundabout.

“If you have noticed, a tender has already been floated in the paper by the Ministry of Transport because that is a regional trunk route,” said Eng Munyonga.

“The maintenance of that road is vested with the Department of Roads. The tenders are actually closing this week.

“We are dealing with the bypasses that are going to be put during the construction phase. The design is going to take two to three months. During those two to three months we are going to be constructing and upgrading the bypasses that we are going to use during the construction of the road.”

Eng Munyonga said the other lot will go through Amalinda Road, Glen View 7 into Gumbi Road and traffic will be directed into either Willowvale or Main Street, while the other side will go through Stoneridge, cutting across into Hopley and Forbes Avenue.

The traffic will be directed through Derbyshire or First Avenue through the industrial areas into the city.

Eng Munyonga said the construction of Mbudzi roundabout overpass will kick off in the next four months.

He said at the same time the city will be working on other roads which include the other leg of Harare Drive from Kirkman Road to Lomagundi Road, with plans afoot to put another roundabout at the junction with Lomagundi Road to improve traffic flow.

“We are currently working on a number of roads, a number of intersections we need to improve traffic flow on,” said Eng Munyonga.

“We have another roundabout coming up at the junction of Glen-eagles Road and the subsequent widening of the road going to Kambuzuma Road.

“We are going to widen that so that it takes more traffic. We are also going to be widening a bit of Harare Drive from Kirkman Road to Lomagundi Road. We are also going to be resealing the section of Harare Drive from Borrowdale Road to Lomagundi Road. We have a number of roads in Kuwadzana we will be working in First Street this year.”

Eng Munyonga said the city would be putting a combination 15 millimetres overspray to improve traffic flow and reseals where the surface was good.

He said the city will work on 48th Street which stretches from First Street to Crowborough.

“We will also be working on a bit of Hinn which comes from High Glen so that traffic is also channelled in that direction,” said Eng Munyonga.

“When we did Crowborough Road we turned left into Kambuzuma Section 6. We need to continue with that road, which is Hinn, from the railway crossing where we left it up to Highglen Road.

“We did a little bit of work there because we have been experiencing some mugging there because of the slow movement of traffic in that area. We are now working on our 2019 programme. Our five-year development programme will see us widening certain pieces of roads that are heavily trafficked.”

Eng Munyonga said Chiremba Road was overdue for widening and Willowvale Road from Main Street going on to Glen View was also due for dualisation.