Thursday, March 28, 2024

Civic leader heaps blame on companies with heavy duty trucks for damaged roads

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A civic leader from BwanaMkubwa Constituency has blamed companies established in the area for damaging road infrastructure.

Ndeke Ward Councilor Cephas Kampamba has attributed to poor state of roads in his ward to movement of trucks transporting heavy load.

Mr Kampamba said he has made efforts to engage the companies in the area to see how the existing infrastructure can be rehabilitated but they remain adamant to take any action.

He explained that the executive under the Ward Development Committee has since presented a proposal from the constituency to have some of the roads rehabilitated using Constituency Development Fund (CDF) for the year 2023.

“The mining and haulage companies in the area have let us down because they seem not to show any concern on the poor state of the roads yet they have contributed to damaging the roads.

“My office has formally engaged the companies and written to them to consider carrying out maintenance of the affected portions by patching up potholes using materials such as stones or laterite but our appeal has fallen on deaf ears. Our hope now is CDF, once this year’s allocation is disbursed, we will set aside a budget for maintenance works to make the roads passable,” he said.

Mr Kampamba has since appealed to the constituents in the area to exercise patience as his office is working to ensure that road infrastructure is worked on.

23 COMMENTS

  1. I travelled from South Caroline up to Washington DC by road and back. I met all sorts of heavy trucks, those carrying containers, cement mixers , ordinary cargo…..and I didn’t see any damaged road. Blame the road, not the trucks.

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    • @ Deja+Vu…Exactly. Poorly constructed roads in the first place. This is what happens when you build sub standard, mediocre infrastructure. Well built roads can withstand heavy trucks, all day long. America has more trucks running on their streets than Zambia. And yet their roads don’t buckle like this. Learn to build quality infrastructure. Bakamushi imwe.

  2. Ba Kampamba stop practicing and perfecting the politics of shifting the blame. The heavy duty truck companies break the law yes but who is supposed to stop them? Government. Government makes the laws and is empowered to enforce them. Why isn’t it doing so? Too lazy to do so? Too corrupt to enforce the law? When you blame the wrong people you are chasing shadows. Point at the right culprits so we can all sort them out.

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  3. This Ward Councillor is not very smart ..he does not the contribution those companies bring to his local economy, you should be blaming RDA, the govt for lack of investment in rail….road contruction in such areas should factor in heavy haulage hence use reinforced concrete subbase if they have to. Secondly you need more investmant in Rail which you should be lobbying for…but you will hit a major stumbling block with this as the elite who own trucking firms are major contributors to your political parties so a successful ZRL is a threat to their bottom balance.

  4. patching up potholes using materials such as stones or laterite.
    NOOOO! Construct durable roads and protect them. There were good roads there before you destroyed them.

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  5. The roads were just poorly constructed under the PF. The picture says it all
    These infrastructure projects were just conduits for connected PF officials or supporters to steal public money.
    If the PF had won the elections in 2021, you would seen the same contractors given huge projects to rehabilitate the poor roads they built.
    Everybody knows this story.

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    • The problem with people in power they always crying this kind of behaviour will make you lose an election people are not interested in winging .
      Better you take responsibility than wasting our time reading your same old song you must grow up

  6. The road from Chingola to Kapiri Mposhi was done in 1993 by Phoenix Contractors with a 20yr lifespan, we’re still driving on the same road between Ndola and Kapiri and it has never been maintained. RDA has taken over even township roads but their contracts don’t include routine maintenance. Motorists that include truckers pay road tax and in addition toll fees, what more do you want from them? It’s unfortunate that Milupi can’t explain the whereabouts of money raised from tolls. Our roads and other infrastructure will continue to deteriorate as long as we don’t cultivate a culture of routine maintenance. Look at the New Government Complex! Soon we’ll have sewer overflowing from the stairs. The magistrate’s complex has been run down. What kind of people are we?

  7. Why build poor roads in the first place then blame the trucks. It’s not the companies duty to mend the roads. They pay taxes, musonko, toll gates etc for that.

  8. Those $1 million per kilometer roads in the photo are the ones that made the likes of PF’s Bowman and Bonanza very rich through kickbacks where contracts just spends maximum $100k by just pouring alsphat on the tarmac and pocketing the rest with PF thieves.

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  9. What is shown in the picture is very common at roadblocks. Of course when trucks stop at one spot for a period of time they exert more pressure on the tar road, especially with heat, and the roads give in. Use concrete at regular roadblock sports instead of tar. But also the workmanship is dubious.

  10. It is government’s responsibility to fix those roads.what you are saying is that upnd have failed. Not surprising

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    • These chaps can not build concrete roads because they want to steal cement for their plots…if a normal road with gravel subbase costs 1 million per kms what more with quick drying concrete subbase.

  11. “Your comment is awaiting moderation”

    seems to be the order of the day, even for innocuous comments. Is now LT a Political Party Platform for PRAISE SINGERS only? You can atleast make that clear to everybody so we know!

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  12. If not the usual:

    “Your comment is awaiting moderation”

    It is the fake:

    “There has been a critical error on this website”

    Well, atleast you can be transparent about it so people don’t waste their precious time on a ” pseudo-political” site which is trying to push a one-sided view of issues in our country.

    • That second message comes up when you are about to submit a lengthy comment…best way round it is to submit your comment in three to four parts.

  13. This is a very dull ward councillor Poor roads and not trucks are to blame .It’s not the companies duty to mend the roads. They pay taxes, toll gates etc for that. and its the governments obligation to build quality roads.

  14. Most of the trucks and busses on the Zambian roads belong to leaders from the from the former regime, the PF and their associates, they are the ones damaging our roads. They damaged the economy and now still damaging our roads…

  15. Bring in train services to mitigate the situation. The roads are simply overwhelmed. Kambani na ba Lee pati pangile rail network.

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