Pedicle road works progress well

Pedicle road works progress well

Mansa, Apr 5/13, ZANIS———-The KR 278 million pedicle road works which started in December last year have made good progress.

The road, which is an important lifeline to the people of Luapula for their market on the Copperbelt , is expected to be completed by November, 2014.

Luapula Province Minister, Benson Kapaya, expressed happiness at the pace of works on the road.

Brig Gen Kapaya, who made a spot check on the works today, said he was happy that the new Contractor – Copperfields Mining Services – has demonstrated capacity to do a quality job on the road.

He noted that the new contractor has adequate equipment to do the works to the required standard and has promised to deliver a good road by November, 2014.

The minister advised the contractor to take advantage of the dry season and speed up the works because the pedicle road was a lifeline for the people of Luapula in finding a market for their various produce on the Copperbelt.

He said it was cheaper to use the pedicle road from Chembe in Luapula Province to Mufulira and other Copperbelt towns than using the Tuta Road.

Brig Gen Kpaya added that he would be checking on the road from time to time to ensure that a good and quality road was delivered on time to the people of Zambia.

He said the people of Chienge and other districts of Luapula Province were engaged in serious production of various crops which needed to get to the Copperbelt and North-Western Provinces through the pedicle road for the yawning market.

And Copperfields Mining Services Manager, Projects, Kalunda Chibalange, said it was favourable that the rains have subsided and the project was on schedule as it was now dealing with Kilometre 2 to Kilometre 45 where they were filling in areas and installing culverts.

Mr Chibalange said the works were demanding a lot of water for the maintenance of diversions but the commodity was being fetched from a far point from the construction site though the challenge will not affect the quality of works and the completion timeframe. 

He added that there will be need to use molasses on the diversion road as dust control on the stretch that was far from the water source while using water bauzers for the stretch within reasonable distance from the water source because dust was a challenge when works were in progress.

Mr Chibalange also disclosed that despite having been sub-contracted to work on the road by the former contractor, Fratellic Locci, there was no connection between the former Contractor and Copperfields in the new contract because it was a completely new chapter for his company.