Spaghetti Road Misses February Completion Date
Dolly Bathobakae | Monday January 23, 2017 17:23
The project was awarded to China Railways Seventh Group in 2015 and was supposed to have been completed last August. After missing the August deadline, the completion date was moved to October 2016. The October deadline was also not met.
When delivering the State of the Nnation Address late last year, President Ian Khama noted that the Thapama interchange will be completed by February 2017, which according to Mokaila, the construction stage of the Thapama interchange is at 75%.
The construction of the Thapama interchange has for the past year and half caused unbearable traffic in the city centre particularly during peak hours, leading to poor performance for local businesses, especially taxi operators.
Mokaila said that the delay of the project was caused by heavy rains that the city has been experiencing for the past weeks.
“If the heavy rainfall continues it will slow down the progress of the Thapama interchange, which can lead to an extension of the completion date,” he said.
Mokaila stated that most of the major roads, which are part of the interchange, have been completed and will be opened in February. He added that most linkage roads are still far behind.
He further noted that the major roads would assist in easing traffic congestions in the city.
Some of the activities, which hindered the completion of the road last year, included delay in the relocation of services belonging to the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited (BTCL), Botswana Fibre Networks (BoFiNet) and Water Utilities Corporation (WUC).
In addition the progress of the work was delayed by the migration of Somerset East residents, who held off on moving out of the construction area.