The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development has shared fresh imagery documenting steady progress on the Chitungwiza road construction project, stretching from the Trabablas Interchange through to the Manyame River Bridge, under the banner of progress, purpose, development and transformation.
The 6.6-kilometre road forms a critical artery linking Chitungwiza, Harare’s largest dormitory town, to the capital’s road network through the Trabablas Interchange, feeding into major routes including High Glen Road and Bulawayo Road. Rehabilitation and widening works currently under way are aimed squarely at easing the chronic congestion that has long plagued motorists and commuters along this corridor, while also offering an alternative route for diverting heavy traffic away from Harare’s central business district via the Mbudzi interchange system.
The project builds on work already completed under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme, through which sections of the road, stretching from the Manyame River Bridge to the Tilcor Road intersection, were previously rehabilitated. Since that nationwide programme began, government figures indicate that more than fifty thousand kilometres of roads and around two thousand structures have been attended to across the country, out of an estimated national road network of ninety thousand kilometres, of which roughly ninety-three per cent had fallen into fair or poor condition.
The Chitungwiza road’s connection to the Trabablas Interchange gives the project added significance. The interchange itself, commissioned by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in May 2025 at an estimated cost of eighty-eight million United States dollars, replaced the long-troublesome Mbudzi roundabout and now links Simon Mazorodze, Chitungwiza and High Glen roads through a network of fifteen bridge structures, some rising as high as eighteen metres. The interchange forms a key component of the North-South Corridor, a major regional trade route connecting Zimbabwe with its Southern African Development Community neighbours.
Further downstream, the recently opened Manyame River Bridge along the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway complements these upgrades, easing congestion and strengthening regional trade links along one of southern Africa’s busiest transport corridors. Officials have described the bridge as part of a broader effort to bridge geographical gaps and ensure seamless connectivity southwards to South Africa and northwards to Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi.
Together, the Chitungwiza road works, the Trabablas Interchange and the Manyame River Bridge form part of a coordinated infrastructure push under government’s Vision 2030 agenda, which seeks to transform Zimbabwe into an upper middle-income economy through sustained investment in transport and connectivity nationwide.
