Safe Road to Prosperity Talking Points by the Chief

SAFE ROAD TO PROSPERITY

TALKING POINTS BY THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MR CONRAD M. LUTOMBI, ON THE OCCASION OF THE MEDIA BRIEFING FOR THE COMPLETION OF SECTION 3 OF THE WINDHOEK –OKAHANDJA ROAD UPGRADE PROJECT

WINDHOEK –19 APRIL 2017

Members of the RA Management and Staff;

Representatives from the Consultant and Contractor;

Members of the Media,

 Good morning to you all, I wish to take this opportunity to welcome and thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here this morning for the briefing of the completed section 3 of the Windhoek-Okahandja road upgrade to a dual carriageway.

 Section 3 covers the road from Brakwater to the Dobra River and was upgraded to a dual carriage way. This section is approximately 10 kilometres long and it is located in the Khomas Region.

 Two new interchanges for access to the freeway system at Döbra South and Döbra North Interchanges were constructed. Each Interchange consists of a freeway underpass leading to the adjacent municipal arterial network, and two road-over-road bridges with four on and off ramps to connect the freeway to the underpass service road crossing split-level below the dual carriageway.

 Section 3 also includes the construction of a 5 kilometre service road along the eastern side of the new freeway, between the Döbra South Interchange and the Döbra North interchange.

 The project commenced in January 2014 and was completed in December 2016.

 This project was funded by the Road Fund Administration through the German funding agency KfW loan. Section 3 was completed to the tune of N$ 335 million.

 On average 130 Namibians were employed on the project of which 20 were women. More than 30% of local labour was employed from the Namibian Youth League. A total of 8 SMME sub- contractors were employed during the project in support of small- scale contractor development.

 The completed section was renamed from B1 to A1. This was done in accordance with the RA/Ministry of Works and Transport standards (manuals) that state that all freeways should be A, the colour change of road signs from green to blue is also the requirement for freeways. The public can expect more A roads like the Windhoek-Hosea Kutako road, Walvis-Bay-Swakopmund road and Omuthiya-Ongwediva. These roads will all be upgraded to freeway standards.

 The Consultant of this project was VKE Namibia Ltd Consulting Engineers and the Contractor was Grinaker-LTA (Namibia) Pty Ltd. The overall supervision is done by the Roads Authority.

 This a very important link of the Trans Kalahari Highway between the two economic hubs, Windhoek and the Walvis Bay Harbour - the latter destined to become a formal SADC Port. 2

 I would like to use this platform to share with you that Section 4A of this project is progressing well. This section involves the rehabilitation and upgrading to dual carriageway of the road from Dobra River to the Omakunde Interchange. The project commenced in January 2016 and is progressing well. The Contractor has started with the construction of the interchanges and has also completed some of the major concrete structures. In addition, there are also some sections of the base that have been completed and surfacing will soon follow. This will see some section of about 7 kilometres completed and open to south bound traffic by end of June 2017. The envisaged completion date for this section is January 2019.

 I thank you.

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