The construction of the Maputo Ring Road will begin in June and should be concluded by 2014, according to the City Council, said an AIM news agency report carried by the Mozambiquan Investor.
Speaking at a press conference in the City Hall where the project was formally presented, the Mayor of Maputo, David Simango, said that the Ring Road will cost US$315-million – of which US$300-m has been pledged by the Chinese government, and the remaining US$15-m is the Mozambiquan contribution.
The contractor is the China Road and Bridge Corporation, and Simango said it is possible that the Chinese company will sub-contract local firms to provide complementary services. Construction of the road is expected to employ between 1 000 and 2 500 Mozambiquan workers and 115 foreigners.
The Ring Road will have six sections. All will be dual carriageways, and the full length of the road will be 74-kilometres – of which 52-kms will be built from scratch, and the remaining 22-kms will consist of rehabilitating and upgrading existing roads.
The Ring Road will be able to carry 3 600 vehicles an hour in each direction. It will link the country’s main north-south highway to the Maputo-South Africa motorway. Thus motorists wishing to go from other parts of the country to South Africa or vice versa will no longer have to drive through the middle of Maputo. It is hoped that this will greatly ease the congestion on Maputo roads.
Motorists will have to pay to use the Ring Road. There will be toll gates on the road, but it has not yet been decided how many of them will be installed.
