ROADS I

closed

The First Highway Project consists of the reconstruction and bituminous paving of sections of the Great East and Great North Roads and the detailed engineering of an additional section of the Great North Road. Both of these roads are main arteries and provide international connections to the sea. The Great North Road is part of the main highway from Cape Town, South Africa to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania and to Nairobi, Kenya, and the Great East Road links the center of Zambia with the highway and railway systems of Malawi and Mozambique. In the present unsettled conditions in Central Africa arising from the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Rhodesia, these roads are carrying exceptional import and export traffic diverted from the Rhodesia Railways. However, reconstruction of the project sections to the proposed standards would be economically justified on the basis of normal traffic patterns. The project sections will have ample capacity to accommodate expected normal traffic volumes and would also be able to handle extraordinary traffic for considerable periods if the need should arise.