The
road between Blantyre and Zomba was the first tarmac road in Malawi, joining
the colonial capital of Zomba with the commercial center of the land. Both
cities have grown since independence came to Malawi in 1964 but the road has
remained the original narrow, snaking two lane tarmac, now with crumbling edges
and filled potholes. That is until June of this year. That is when road
reconstruction began. This is something that has been talked about for over 10
year, so to see it actually happening is an encouragement on one level and a challenge
on another.
The
encouragement is that it will make a great difference in travel time and travel
safety once it is completed. It is an indication of developmental progress
being made in the country as such infrastructures are keys to progress, to growth.
This is great hope for the future. The challenge is living through the construction.
Preparations for this have been in the works for well over a year, as land was
bought up alongside the existing road, and trees back from the roadway were
bought and cut down to make way for the expansion of the road and for “diversions,”
Malawi’s alternative to detours. A diversion is a temporary dirt roadway
parallel to the road being constructed. In June the diversions were started and
subsequently the actual road construction was begun at the locations where the
diversions were build. The project is moving forward with gusto. Almost 40
kilometers of the 70 kilometer road has diversions, and construction, at
various levels, is underway.
 |
| Minibus zooming along the diversion. |
Last
week, I had to make a trip to Zomba. I was warned that the diversions would be
rough on my small car, so a friend offered to drive her 4 wheel truck, since we
also had items to transport. I was grateful for the higher and smoother ride –
not that it was all that smooth, given the makeshift nature of the road. The
idea is that the diversion is only temporary. It is just cleared dirt, roughly provided
to make vehicle passage possible around the work. The diversions are dusty at
the moment. Once the rains come, they will be muddy and rutted. But they serve their
purpose. Speed limits of 40 kilometers per hour are posted, which slow travel
considerable. In places that is not even a safe speed, but the minibuses don’t
take that into consideration. They still feel they need to make time to make
money, so they only go as slowly as the traffic in front of them, and pass as
soon as they can, raising a screen of dust. This gives graphic meaning to the
phrase, “Eat my dust.” The old trip of an hour took us an hour and 50 minutes..
This will increase as the work areas expand over the next 2 years of the
projected time of construction. We arrived dust covered – passengers and vehicle.
Since this is the primary access to Zomba from Blantyre, I’m sure I will be
adjusting to the dust and the roughness. As I contemplated this on the long
trip back, I realized it could be worse. I could be sitting still in traffic on
the Parkway East in Pittsburgh, trying to negotiate the construction of the
Squirrel Hill Tunnels, taking an hour to go 5 miles. At least traffic is moving
on the Zomba road – dusty but moving.
