Harare-Mutare Highway urgently needs widening

MUTARE Highway passes through the dormitory town of Ruwa. When the highway was designed, it was meant to also serve Ruwa, Mabvuku-Tafara, Msasa, Greendale, Hillside and Eastlea. Ruwa has since grown to have among others suburbs Zimre Park, Timire, Damofalls, Riverside, Chipukutu, Barrowshed, USAid, Solomio, Mabvazuva and Windsor. The expansion of Mabvuku to Caledonia and Eastview, with an estimated population of 20 000, has exerted pressure on the road. This leads to massive congestion during the rush morning hours.

There is dense traffic from George in Ruwa to the Msasa/Harare Drive roundabout leading into town every morning, inciting reckless driving by some motorists. On the other hand, traffic from Harare has the luxury of two lanes which it does not need since one lane suffices. As a result, pirate taxis drive against oncoming traffic. ZRP tries to stop these malcontents but it does not help the situation. We take two hours to cover the 20km stretch from Ruwa to Harare CBD. This is unacceptable and shows lack of creativity.

As a short-term solution, I suggest that ZRP traffic personnel marshal motorists to a third lane using one of the outbound lanes. In other words, traffic from Harare to Mutare between 6am and 8am could use one lane from the Harare Drive roundabout up to Zimre Park turn-off. I call this the “deluge hour”. ZRP traffic then marshals traffic to three lanes to Harare ie, the two official lanes to Harare and one lane on the other (Harare-Mutare) side.

In the long-term, the road needs widening up to the roundabout with at least four lanes going city wards. Also, I propose that the roundabout be decommissioned and replaced with a controlled intersection. That roundabout is a culprit as well. But my point is that if we have hypothetically three temporary morning lanes up to that point, ZRP traffic can simply manage vehicles on Harare Drive from Mandara/Greendale so as to give citybound traffic priority. As it stands, cars have to give way to traffic coming from the right at the roundabout, which causes a “pile up” up to Mabvuku turn-off.

I kindly appeal to relevant road authorities to save us from this peak hour driving agony.

Rejoice Ngwenya

Ruwa resident