Great West Road, Zambia

The Great West Road of Zambia runs 590 km from the capital, Lusaka, to Mongu, capital of the Western Province. It connects that province to the rest of the country, as well as being one of two routes to the south-west extremity of North-Western Province. It also serves as the main highway of the western half of Central Province. The entire route from Lusaka to Mongu is designated as the M9 Road.[1]

Great West Road
Map showing the Great West Road through Zambia
Route information
Length584 km (363 mi)
Major junctions
East endT2/Great North Road in Lusaka
 M20 in Mumbwa
West endM10 in Mongu
Location
Major citiesLusaka, Mumbwa, Kaoma, Mongu
Highway system
Transport in Zambia

In the Copperbelt, however, the road going west to Solwezi also used to be known as the Great West Road. At that time Copperbelt Province was, despite its central location, known as Western Province.

Road development was slower to start in the west of the country than in other parts. A dirt road was built from the Great North Road at Landless Corner to Mumbwa in the early 1930s (today designated as the M20[1]), but was not extended to Kaoma and Mongu until 1937, about ten years after road transport started in other provinces. The Great West Road did not have the same recognition and maintenance as the better-known Great North Road and Great East Road, and was also for a time only the third most used route to the west. A route by ox wagon and boat up the Zambezi from Livingstone was the most used in the first decades of the 20th century. A road was made from Mululwe, the end of the Mulobezi Railway, along the banks of the Luampa River and then across the sandy plain to Mongu about the same time as the Great West Road was built and, thanks to the railway, was used more, until the 1950s.[2]

The first Great West Road was a dirt road with pontoon ferries across rivers such as the Kafue. It passed through only two towns: Mumbwa and Kaoma. The first 100 km passed through farmland and bush north of the Kafue Flats and like the middle section crossing the Kafue National Park, was constructed with laterite gravel. Most of the last third passes through virtually uninhabited bush with no streams or rivers. It is completely dry except after rain in the wet season and is very sandy, which took its toll on trucks and their drivers, as vehicles could get bogged in sand in the dry season, in addition to the usual rainy season hazards of floods and washed-out sections.[2]

The fact that the road started at Landless Corner, 69 km north of Lusaka, suited traffic to and from the Copperbelt. Lusaka did not become the capital of the country until about the time the road was built (1935) and it was not until the late 1940s that it became an important centre. A shortcut to Lusaka from Mumbwa via Nakachenje, bypassing Landless Corner, was built around this time.

The Great West Road was first paved around 1969, to a new alignment which, controversially for the residents of those towns, bypassed Mumbwa and Kaoma by a few kilometres. The Nakachenje branch was paved a little later. A lack of maintenance through the late 1970s and 1980s meant that by the 1990s the pavement was in bad condition and had lost in some sections. The Nakachenje branch was in better condition and became accepted as being the Great West Road while the Landless Corner section was neglected, and by 2005, was a poor dirt road.

In the last decade the Great West Road has been rehabilitated and in 2005 was classed as being in good condition.

Route

The older route, from the Landless Corner junction with the T2 Road (Great North Road) in Chibombo District (70 kilometres north of Lusaka by the Wangwa Farm) to Mumbwa is designated as the M20 Route on Zambia's road network.[1] It is 120 kilometres in length up to Mumbwa Central and is in poor condition, with motorists having the impression that the road is really not being properly maintained.[3]

The newer route from Lusaka Central, commonly known as the Nakachenje Route, is designated as the M9 Road.[1] It begins north of Lusaka Central, at a roundabout junction with the T2 Road (Great North Road) and the T4 Road (Great East Road). It goes west up to the junction with Lumumba Road. It joins Lumumba Road southwards up to the next junction, where it becomes the road west as Mumbwa Road. It is one road for the remainder of its length.

From Lumumba Road in Lusaka, it goes west for 150 kilometres, through the northern area of Chilanga District (Mwembeshi) and Shibuyunji District, entering Central Province, to bypass Mumbwa to the south. South-west of Mumbwa, the M9 is joined by the M20 Road from Landless Corner. From Mumbwa, the M9 goes west for 130 kilometres as Mongu Road to cross the Kafue River and enter the central area of the Kafue National Park north of the town of Itezhi-Tezhi. It continues for another 120 kilometres, leaving Central Province and entering Western Province, to the town of Kaoma, which it bypasses to the south.

From Kaoma, the road goes west for 200 kilometres to the city of Mongu to end at a roundabout intersection with the M10 Road from Senanga and the Namibia Border in the south.

Westwards extension

An ambitious project, the Barotse Floodplain causeway was started in 2002 to extend the Great West Road from Mongu to Kalabo on a 46-kilometre causeway across the Barotse Floodplain, via the ferry across the Zambezi's main channel at Sandaula, which would then be replaced by a 500-metre bridge. Originally intended to be completed in 2006, it has been delayed by technical problems of building on the floodplain, and consequent funding problems. The long term intention is to then continue the highway into Angola and to connect with its road network as a new trade route for Zambia to Atlantic Ocean ports. If this happens despite the environmental problems of crossing the floodplain, the road could finally rival the Great East Road and the Great North Road in Zambia's network.[4][5]

The road was constructed by AVIC International (Aviation Industry Corporation of China) and as of 2016, the road over the Barotse Floodplain has been completed.[6] [7] It consists of 26 bridges crossing the floodplain.

Route

While the M9 from Lusaka ends at the roundabout-junction with the M10 Road from the Namibia Border, the road continuing westwards over the Barotse Floodplain is designated as the D819 on the Zambian Road Network. It first goes westwards for 14 kilometres to the settlement named Lealui. From Lealui, the road continues westwards as the Barotse Floodplain Causeway for 34 kilometres up until it reaches a junction with the RD319 Road at the settlement of Lutwi. The RD319 Road, which is coming from Kalongola (south of Senanga) in the south, is the road which goes northwards to Kalabo from this junction (22 kilometres). The route from Mongu to Kalabo is 70 kilometres. There is yet to be a proper trade road from Kalabo westwards to the border into Angola.

References
  1. "Roads and Road Traffic (Amendment) Act, Cap 464 | Zambia Legal Information Institute". zambialii.org. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
  2. H C N Ridley, "Early History of Road Transport in Northern Rhodesia". Northern Rhodesia Journal, Vol 2, No. 5 (1954), pp 16-23.
  3. https://www.lusakatimes.com/2014/05/16/landless-corner-mumbwa-road-poorly-done/
  4. Sylvia Mweetwa: "Road financiers to extend agreement." Ndola: Times of Zambia, 5 April 2007.
  5. Chris McIntyre (2004). Zambia: The Bradt Travel Guide online at www.zambia-travel-guide.com. Retrieved 21 November 2007.
  6. http://travelzambia.co/content/barotse-plains-then-and-now
  7. https://www.lusakatimes.com/2016/04/08/mongu-kalabo-road-completed/
General references
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