The Department of Roads in Zimbabwe has commissioned Royal HaskoningDHV to conduct a feasibility study to determine the viability of construction and tolling to improve the road between Harare and the Beitbridge border post.

The study – which would be carried out in association with five Zimbabwean partner firms – involved traffic studies, development of a toll strategy, engineering analysis and concept design, environmental-impact scoping, an economic feasibility study, financial modelling and preparation of a draft project information memorandum for investors.

The cost of rehabilitating and improving the road was estimated to be in excess of $600-million, some of which would be funded as a loan against revenue from the tolls.

The feasibility project was urgently required to provide an indication of viability as interested funders – the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the African Development Bank – needed to make a decision about committing funding by March 2013.

The Harare to Beitbridge road comprised a portion of the trunk road network of Zimbabwe, as well as the North to South Corridor – one of the major arterial links in the regional road network.

The road was the most direct link between the capital cities of Harare, in Zimbabwe, and Pretoria, in South Africa, and provided landlocked Zambia access to the Indian Ocean ports of Durban and Richards Bay.

“The road carries between 1 000 and 5 000 vehicles a day, with the heavier flows in the proximity of Harare. Of significance is the fact that a high proportion of this traffic are trucks carrying goods, equipment and machinery that support the Zimbabwean economic recovery,” Royal HaskoningDHV project manager Phil Hasluck explained.

The 580-km long road project, which started just outside Harare and ended at the Beitbridge border post, was a single carriageway, two-lane road with numerous bridges.

Although well maintained in the past, the road was over 40 years old and was rapidly deteriorating under increased heavy vehicle traffic.

Alternatives to improve it as a single carriageway road or to add certain sections as dual carriageway would be assessed.