The Lusaka-Ndola Dual Carriageway Upgrade

Ajouté : 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]If the Zambian economy has a heart, then the T2T3 is its primary artery.

[00:00:07]Every grain of millime moving north, every liter of fuel for the mines and every ton of copper moving south flows through this 327 km corridor.

[00:00:21]As of February of this year, the surgery to fix this artery is in high gear with 45% of the project complete. We're moving from a patch and prey road network to a play and perform economy. Now, this isn't just about asphalt. It's about the physical median barrier. You see, by separating traffic, we're effectively ending the era of head-on collisions in the valley of death. I personally lost some really good friends and really close friends, dear friends, because of the lack of this barrier in between. And thankfully, it's coming to an end.

[00:01:04]Then there's also the climate resilient engineering that's going on. After the volatile rains of late 2025, the MOIC consortium upgraded drainage specs to withstand once in a century floods. For a logistics owner, this means lower insurance premiums and the end of black spot anxiety.

[00:01:27]Now, let me tell you about a clever move that the government did.

[00:01:31]If you look at NAPSA as the fuel, then your pension is the engine. And what I'm trying to tell you is that NAPSA provided a $300 million US loan at a 9.5% interest rate, which means that your retirement savings are literally paving the way for your commute. And it gets better. We're also making our corridor smarter because new plazas such as the Nalomino Mundy Plaza feature automatic number plate recognition. And for our logistics partners, this means digital velocity rolling through without manual inspection delays.

[00:02:11]There's also a bypass win. You see, we've built 30 kilometers of bypasses around Cowway and Capirian Porschi. No more urban crawl. Mining traffic is now separated from city life. So for those of you that want to breeze through, literally can do that. And that's a serious win.

[00:02:31]Now, despite these bypasses, we also know that Zambia has no free alternative roads. You either pay the toll fee or you don't move.

[00:02:42]But we're choosing a visible managed cost over the invisible chaotic costs of broken axles and 12-hour delays.

[00:02:53]By signing the SADCOU in January, Zambia has positioned this road as the gold standard of the North South Corridor.

[00:03:03]I keep saying this, but it's true. We're no longer landlocked.

[00:03:09]We're the transit hub of Africa.

[00:03:13]Now that this is a private sector managed PPP road, private public partnership road, do you think we will see fewer speed traps and traffic police presence in general or will enforcement actually get stricter to protect the concessionire's investments?

[00:03:32]Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Have an indaba and we'll follow.

[00:03:36]Stay tuned for episode 11 where we look at the $145 million soi Kipushi Road, the new gateway that's finally connecting the northwestern province directly to the DRC. Stay Zambia proof and stay tuned.