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Harare looks to concrete solution for bad roads

Heavy traffic snakes through downtown Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, manoeuvring along the potholed roads as impatient motorists hoot at one other, while pedestrians weave through slow-moving cars.

The city's asphalt road network is in dire straits, and will only get worse as damage from flooding and freak weather increases due to the impact of climate change. The solution - say engineers, city planners and campaigners - is concrete roads.

The city council has decided to replace high-maintenance asphalt with concrete, but there is no clear time frame or budget.

"It's a project that we want to see take off as soon as possible," said Michael Chideme, spokesman for Harare City Council. "We view these (concrete) roads as strong roads - roads that are resilient in terms of the vagaries of weather, so once we have these roads, they will not be susceptible to being washed away by storms."

Countries such as Malawi, Ethiopia and South Africa have embraced concrete roads, shifting away from asphalt .

Chideme said all roads around Harare would be rebuilt using concrete.

"Research studies that have been done already by our team of quantity surveyors and civil engineers show that well-designed cement roads require little or no maintenance that lasts a 40-year lifespan," Chideme told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Many Harare drivers, like Luckmore Mhike, welcomed the prospect of concrete roads.

Climate change experts think concrete will be more robust in the face of worsening floods and heat, as global warming brings more extreme weather such as Cyclone Dineo which pummelled Zimbabwe earlier this year. The storm washed away some roads, tore gullies into others and washed away tar surfacing.

Civil engineering consultant Gilbert Motsi said concrete roads better withstand changes in temperature and humidity.

"The surface of a concrete road is solid, and it keeps its properties over time, free from climate change effects," he said.

"Without being concreted, our roads will continue to suffer various stresses as a result of climate change impacts - flooding, erosion of their edges and foundations, and loss of road structure uprightness."

Zimbabwe launched a national road survey last year to determine the cost of replacing asphalt roads with concrete.

Harare's director of works, engineer Phillip Pfukwa, said putting in a concrete road would be four to five times more expensive than an asphalt tar road.

As a result, the capital's rate-payers worry they will end up paying more on tax bills.

"Whether or not concrete roads will be the answer to climate-induced destruction, I am afraid the burden of paying more will fall on us," said Douglas Mbalekwa, a resident of Mabelreign, a middle-income suburb.

But local authorities are convinced concrete roads will be worth the up-front investment.

Said Chideme: "It is better to invest once, and then do periodic road repairs than to say every few months you go back to the same road after it has been affected by the weather."

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