KATIMA MULILO – The CEO of the Roads Authority, Conrad Lutombi, says the construction of the multi-million Namalubi-Isize-Luhonono road is going well, and that they have made massive progress towards the completion of the long-awaited project that will link the mainland to the flood belt.
Lutombi made these remarks last Thursday during the inauguration of the Isize community hostel, which was built by Nexus, the company which is busy constructing the road. According to Lutombi the section of the road from Namalubi to Isize, which is about 24 km long, is almost done and the final touches will be completed by the end of February.
“The construction is going well, by the end of February they will be done with putting road markings from Namalubi to Isize and the access road to Kalimbeza rice project, and we will now concentrate on the road from Isize to Luhonono,” said Lutombi.
Critics have however questioned how the road is being constructed as they are of the opinion that the design of the road, particularly the section from Isize to Luhonono, does not suit the flood plain areas where it is being constructed.
They argue that the contractor should have copied the design of Zambia’s Mongu-Kalabo road, which is about 34 kilometres in legth, and is built in the Baroste plains with 26 bridges across it. New Era however understands that before the commencement of the project in 2015, a delegation of Zambezi regional governor Lawrence Sampofu, former Kabbe Constituency Councillor Raphael Mbala, and the contractor of the road visited Zambia to see how the Mongu-Kalabo road that cuts across the Zambezi flood plain, which has been described as an engineering marvel, was constructed.
Sampofu revealed last year that the contractor has taken local knowledge into consideration, and that the drainage designs of the road from Isize to Luhonono have been redone to include more culverts and three big bridges across deeper and bigger channels to prevent that section of the road from being washed away when those channels overflow with raging flood waters.