“The country is currently undergoing the challenges of congestions and in order to address that we are planning to build at least six flyovers and overheads roads,” the Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS) chief executive officer, Mr. Patrick Mfugale said, adding that six areas have been identified where there are road junctions.
He said the flyovers will be built at Tazara, Ubungo, Magomeni, Fire, Kamata and Chang’ombe road junctions.
According to Mr. Mfugale, the construction of the first flyover at Tazara Intersection where Nyerere Road crosses Nelson Mandela Road is expected to commence in September this year following a grant of Tsh 52.2 billion ($ 32.6 million) that was issued by Japan.
Tanzania and Japan have already signed a grant of Tsh 1.1 billion ($ 688,261), for the detailed design of the flyover project which is expected to be complete at the end of July this year.
Mr. Mfugale explained that once the design is complete, Japan will announce tender for a contractor in their country an exercise that is expected to be completed within three months.
“Once the tender process of finding a contractor from Japan is completed we expect to take off construction in September,” he said.
However he declined to mention the time frame of the construction because it will be determined by the design which is yet to be completed.
“This fly over will contribute to alleviating the existing traffic jams in Dar es Salaam, as well as to strengthening the role of the Tanzanian road network as an international corridor connecting Dar es Salaam Port and the nearby land-locked countries,” he said.
Mr. Mfugale explained that the next construction is the Magomeni junction flyover that is expected to take off as soon as funds are allocated.
According to him, fund is the barrier and they were currently initiating for the implementation of detail designs to determine the cost of the flyovers.
The government of Tanzania has allocated Tshs 28.6 million ($ 17 million) in this year’s fiscal budget to address the problems of congestion in Dar es Salaam city.
The funds will be used for upgrading the city roads while Tshs 1,000 million ($ 625,692) will be injected in the construction of the Tazara flyover.
The Tazara flyover at the junction of Nyerere Road and Mandela Expressway would have a big impact on the socio-economy because it was aimed at reducing congestion in Dar es Salaam.
Alleviating traffic congestion has huge potential to contribute the national economic growth. Dar es Salaam city that continues to grow and become increasingly commercial destinations and activities, so is the starting point for all transport systems, including road, rail, air and maritime transport systems.
Since Dar es Salaam is the metropolis of Tanzania accounting for more than 60% of national tax revenue of the country as a whole, congestion has a huge impact on the economy.
According to TWAWEZA (2010) report, reveal Nine Solutions to Ease Congestion in Dar es Salaam including Different Vacation Periods that it could be decided that school vacations do not all take place at once.
“They could be split into periods of a few weeks, with every zone starting their vacation on different dates,” the report reads.
Another solution is Restrict Cargo Traffic mean that restrict the movement of large (exceeding 10 tons) trucks on busy route, with high traffic, such as Bagamoyo, Morogoro, Nyerere and Mandela roads.
TWAWEZA says Restrict Traffic Entry points is another solution whereby cars should be allowed to enter main stream traffic only via select roads/streets, with no exiting or entering traffic less than 100m from any major traffic junction.
It says Redirected traffic, double lanes is also a solution which by use uncongested inner-most lane to ease a congested side. This can be used everywhere when double lanes are available and only one side is congested, with one traffic policeman after each 200m between junctions.
Others are Passenger-friendly Bus Transport and Priority traffic for buses.
“Other traffic should be allowed only when moving at speeds greater than 70 kilometer per hour” it shows.
BY.Corporate-digest
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