Massive road upgrades ongoing

The upgrade of the Windhoek-Okahandja road to a dual-carriageway freeway is expected to be completed within the next four years, while work has already started on a dual carriageway from Windhoek to Hosea Kutako International Airport, to be known as the Southern Bypass.
Roads Authority spokesperson Hileni Fillemon confirmed that the contractor has started work on the Southern Bypass, which will cost about N$800 million.
The Southern Bypass will entail the construction of Trunk Road 9/1, which will start at the road going toward the Kupferberg Pass and will continue eastward between the Windhoek Country Club and Prosperita, toward the Rehoboth traffic circle.
From the Rehoboth traffic circle, the Trunk Road 9/1 dual carriageway will keep running eastward as a new road passing Olympia, until it reaches the future extension of Sam Nujoma Drive south of Avis.
The new road will follow an alignment parallel to the existing airport road, Trunk Road 1/6, at varying distances of in between 1.5 kilometres and a few hundred metres up to Hosea Kutako International Airport.
According to Fillemon phase one of the project will stop at the extension of Sam Nujoma Drive.
“The municipal road will require extension by the City of Windhoek to allow trucks to bypass the city from the east around the city to the south and west of the central business district,” she explained.
The CEO of the Roads Authority, Conrad Lutombi, said that once phase one of this project has been completed that Namibia will witness the largest interchange it has ever seen.
According to him the interchange that is currently being constructed across from the Windhoek Country Club and Resort has only been seen in developed countries and nothing like it has ever been built in Namibia before.
Fillemon further elaborated on the upgrading of the Windhoek-Okahandja freeway that is expected to be completed by 2020 and will include the construction of pedestrian bridges over the section of the road known as the Western Bypass.
In order to upgrade the Windhoek-Okahandja road to freeway standards, the 68km road was subdivided into four sections, which will be constructed in phases.
Contracts for sections one and two still need to be awarded before the total cost can be determined.
According to Fillemon section three will be completed in October this year. This section entails the construction of an additional carriageway from the end of the existing dual carriageway to the Dobra River Bridge. Two more interchanges will be constructed as well as two new bridges over the Dobra River. This section will cost about N$350 million.
Section four will continue with the freeway to Okahandja, bypassing Okahandja and linking the existing roads to Otjiwarongo and Karibib.
A new bridge over the Swakop River will be constructed and a number of smaller bridges along the existing alignment will be repaired.
This section is subdivided into sections 4a and 4b. Section 4a is currently under construction. Completion is scheduled for January 2019, but an extension may be granted in case of excessive rainfall. The total contract amount is approximately N$1.08 billion. Section 4b will go out on tender in October 2016.
Furthermore section one will entail the construction of a second carriageway between Auas Road and Main Road 52 at Sam Nujoma Drive in Windhoek. Section two will entail the rehabilitation of the current dual carriageway from Sam Nujoma Drive to Brakwater. The contracts for sections one and two still have to be awarded.
With regard to the water crisis in central Namibia, Fillemon said roads cannot be built with less water, but semi-purified water and seawater will be used as far as possible.
ELLANIE SMIT