Sam Nujoma Road project in quick progress

THE Upgrading of Sam Nujoma Road project in Dar es Salaam city whose construction works started in August 2006 and had encountered a series of postponement, is now expected to end up by September this year. The work is still going on. Tanzania Roads Agency (TANROADS) which was charged with the responsibility for the road’s upgrading on behalf of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development in the country, is doing everything possible to ensure that the project is finished quickly despite of the public outcry on a slow progress of the project. The road is being upgraded by a Chinese construction firm, China Henan International Corporation into a dual carriage way is part of the main urban ring roads in the city of Dar es Salaam that links up the two major trunk roads; the new Bagamoyo Road and the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro Road. The road serves traffic destined to and from various centers such as Mwenge market, the University of Dar es Salaam (Main campus), Mikocheni Industrial area, the Sinza residential area and Ubungo Bus Station.

Contractor’s earth moving machine spreading bitumen on a nearly completed road portion of a 4 km Sam-Nujoma Road at Mwenge in Dar es Salaam.

TANROADS has determined to provide a solution to the unbearable traffic congestion problem currently facing the road and others such as Kilwa road and Nelson Mandela road within the city of Dar es Salaam. The volume of the traffic on the road is so high and according to the traffic counts carried out in 2004; Sam Nujoma road had over 20,000 vehicles passing along in a day.

A modern constructed round about of the nearly completed portion of Sam-Nujoma Road in Dar es Salaam.

Based on this high traffic volume and the poor condition of the road, congestion especially at peak hours in the morning and evenings necessitated the expansion and upgrading of the road. The work involves rehabilitation and widening of 3.95 kilometers of the existing bituminous single carriageway to a dual bituminous carriageway road and is fully funded by the government of Tanzania at an estimated cost of Tshs12.9 billions. The contract for supervision services of Tshs300 million was signed with M/S Norplan A.S in association with NIMETA Consult Ltd.

A completed one side of a road stretch of the Sam-Nujoma Road under rehabilitation. This side goes to Ubungo

Each carriageway would have a width of 7.5m while the service roads will be 3 to 5 meters wide depending on the availability of space. Pedestrian walkways will be 2 meters wide. There will be a provision of about 5 meters for the location of public utilities at the edges of the road reserve. Three types of junctions are provided namely, signalized junctions, priority junctions, and roundabouts. The consultants at the project, the M/S Norplan regularly carries supervision work to ensure that all specifications given for the project are strictly followed. Despite the fact that the construction was anticipated to last a short period, a number of uncontrollable factors including natural ones have made the construction to last longer. The project was supposed to be completed in phases, the first phase being a road portion from Mwenge to the junction of the newly built Mlimani city shopping center. The contractor had to deliver this portion of a 1.5 Km road section by 30th November 2006, but couldn’t do it due to inadequate mobilization of equipment and key staff.

Commuters board a daladala that plies between Mwenge and Ubungo at a bus station along Sam-Nujoma Road which is nearing completion. This spot is close to a famous Full Gospel Bible Fellowship Church.

These key two factors were recently disclosed to have been the major constraints that had slowed down the progress. In the current quarter, the contractor continued mostly with the works in the priority section from Km 3+950 to Km 2+450 construction of Sinza Bridge and the drainage structure. By end of First year the contractor had completed 74 percent of works within the 1.5 Km section which included earthworks construction of cement stabilized sub-base dense bitumen macardam base and kerbs. The design and the composition used in construction of Sam Nujoma road is a mixed up of the normal materials used for road construction.

Traffic jam on one side of the Sam-Nujoma road where vehicles have lined moving on one side only so as to pave way as the construction is going on the other side.

Sam Nujoma Road project has experienced a lot of challenges before and during construction. One of the commonest is the relocation of utilities which includes water pipes, sewerage pipes, telephone cables and electricity power lines which was done by a city based electrical company, Dustan Electrical Engineering Services. The relocation of these utilities took longer than expected partly because the location of some of the services was unknown; this delayed the commencement of the works. The removal of properties located within the road reserve areas took longer than anticipated. This process had to a greater extent interfered with the construction works.