The Roads Authority (RA) says 87% of the mega-phased Windhoek-Okahandja Road has been completed while the remaining 13% of work will be completed by March next year.
The RA Chief Executive Officer Conrad Lutombi said the 70 kilometres complete stretch, which was upgraded to a four freeway, will be wholly opened to the public in December while it continues to do final touches.
The project was funded by the government with a financial commitment of N$3 billion.
The once accident-prone road, whose upgrade began in 2016, is expected to be officially opened by President Hage Geingob in July 2024.
“Today we are opening another stretch of the road from Omakunde interchange up to the Gross Barmen interchange, which is just six kilometres away from the town of Okahandja. Motorists will now have an option to access Okahandja using this stretch or the off-ramp route via Osona. This is a dual carriage on both South and Northern directions,” Lutombi said.
“This final stretch was constructed for around N$747 million, while the overall cost including the 13% remainder of work is N$997 million. Therefore, we are opening it to the public to already start enjoying, though taking into consideration the adherence to traffic and road signs.”
Lutombi further said the road is being constructed by Otesa, a local company, with 60% shareholding in a joint venture with an Italian company Cooperativa Muratori Cementisti Ravenna.
“This project created about 300 jobs and the majority of them are Namibian professionals. Going forward we encourage Namibian companies to join partnerships and joint ventures when undertaking bigger projects for skills transfer and capacitation, and that is what happened here. When the project started there were about 40 expatriates, but as of now there are only seven or eight, a sign that capacitation really transpired,” he said.
