BCC commissions $1m road equipment

The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has commissioned road construction and maintenance equipment worth more than US$1m, in a move aimed at strengthening its ability to rehabilitate the city’s deteriorating road network using in-house teams. Speaking at the ceremony on Friday, Mayor David Coltart described the development as a milestone in restoring the city’s roads. “Very few things give me as much pleasure as events like this,” he said.

Coltart said the acquisition would allow the city’s Works Department to reduce dependence on third-party contractors and focus on full-scale road reconstruction. “We all know driving our roads what a shocking condition they are in,” he said. “It costs approximately US$15m just to maintain our existing road network, and that assumes it has already been maintained.

Many of our roads can no longer simply be maintained — they have to be rebuilt.” He added that the machinery was suited to reconstruction rather than pothole patching. “The nature of the equipment enables the council to completely reconstruct roads, and that is what we need to do,” he said. The mayor also encouraged residents to work with council in maintaining roads, saying some communities had already organised local efforts to assist with pothole repairs under the supervision of the Works Department.

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Coltart commended the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development for rehabilitation works on major routes, including Matopos Road and the road to Kezi, following engagements with Transport Minister Felix Mhona. He welcomed government plans to establish an asphalt production plant in Bulawayo after the commissioning of a similar facility at Skyline, saying it would help reduce the cost of road construction materials. ZINARA engineer Enock Masotsha said the initiative reflected a shift towards strengthening the operational capacity of road authorities.

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