The Sunday Mail
THE multi-million-dollar rehabilitation of Samora Machel Avenue in the capital has come under scrutiny amid revelations that some parts of the road are littered with potholes, barely three months after roadworks.
A survey by The Sunday Mail showed that some intersections including Samora Machel Avenue and Glenara Avenue, Seventh Street, Enterprise Road and Steven Road are now littered with potholes which have become a nightmare to motorists.
The Samora Machel Avenue rehabilitation is part of the upgrading of the Plumtree-Harare-Mutare road. The roadworks are being undertaken by Group Five of South Africa which in turn subcontracted various companies including Bitumen World and JR Goddard Contracting (Private) Limited.
A South African financial institution advanced a loan to Zimbabwe for the rehabilitation and Harare will repay through revenue collected from motorists at tollgates.
But the mushrooming of potholes has raised questions over the quality of the work.
Civil engineers highlighted that the existence of potholes, a few months into the rehabilitation programme, revealed shocking “workmanship flaws”.
“If the potholes have developed just months after rehabilitation, it means this is a good example of botched up engineering techniques.
“The excuse of incessant rains does not hold water because in other countries like Europe where weather conditions like heavy rains and snow are worse than in Zimbabwe, the roads last longer,” said a private civil engineer who cannot be named for professional reasons.
Another engineer said the defects liability period which is normally between one and two years was not applicable on the Samora Machel Avenue project.
“During the defects liability period, a contractor is obliged to repair any defects at own costs. To enforce this, a contractor will have had a percentage of his monthly invoice deducted and put in a retention fund.
The money is only released after satisfactory completion of the project.
“We hope that the money is being deducted so as to protect the motoring public,” said the civil engineer.
The Sunday Mail survey also showed that the contractors are still busy upgrading the roads, although information obtained indicates that the project was supposed to be complete by December 31 2014.
JR Goddard Contracting founder and director Jim Goddard defended the construction works, saying the areas under spotlight along Samora Machel Avenue were yet to be completed.
“The area is not yet completed; it has not been primed because of the rains but as soon as the weather changes and the roads dry up, the potholes will be primed, sealed and repaired.
“The constructors are very much aware of the areas with those potholes and they are doing their best to improve the situation,” he said.
