RAUBEX MITIGATES TRAFFIC WITH THE NEW BEITBRIDGE BORDER POST PROJECT

One of the biggest construction engineering companies in Africa, Raubex Group, has just finished on working on its biggest project to date.

The JSE listed company, in partnership with the Zimbabwean government as well Zimborders, came together to build the Beitbridge border post, a $175 million project. In order to ensure that it was a success, Raubex Group worked alongside its subsidiary companies. These included, Raubex Building, Raubaux Construction, OMV and EMPA structures.

The main aim was to build a modern Border Post that facilitates and promotes, tourism, and enhances the border crossing experience through the gateway of Africa.

The company revealed that prior to the new post, the border only had one building that was being used for all operations, processes and all paperwork. This had a certain amount of border officials that facilitated freight, buses and pedestrians. In the old border post, buses, light vehicles and pedestrians used the same route, but freight was separated.

One of the biggest things that Raubex Group has done, is mitigating traffic to ease the border now. Now there are three traffic streams for freight, bus and light vehicle or a pedestrian, and each stream consists of its own Immigration terminal and supporting infrastructure based on the classification of the traffic. There was also an increase on the border post officials as well to help facilitate and occupy all three traffic streams.  

The president of Zimbabwe himself made the announcement of the increased revenue. There was over 100% increase in revenue collection after the border post was officially opened.

Some of the main points of the landmarks of the project that were built include:

• A fire center
• A reservoir
• A quarantine facility
• And 220 houses for the staff

When it came to building the post, 40% local procurement included Labor and Materials from Zimbabwe. What also helped save client money was that there was no disconnect between the architect, the contractor and the project managers. Now the town has access to increased purified water.

Beitbridge consists of about 30 000 people (unconfirmed number), and about 3000 pedestrians go through the border post in peak seasons on a daily basis. Most of the maintenance team was part of the construction team as part of the skills transfer project.

The power comes from the Zimbabwean grid, but the border post has backup power with three generators that have been installed to facilitate and ensure continued operation during loadshedding. The border post has to be operational at all times.

The important thing was to streamline traffic in order for goods to move quicker and faster between the two countries, as well as for immigration processes to go smoother because previously for an example, a truck would be standing in a queue for days and now that has been improved to hours.

There is also a warehouse that has been built to confiscate goods from the border, which are later given up for auction. This is the second phase of the building in maintenance.

Raubex Group has received a 17-year contract to manage the border, and there is also a separate contract for maintenance.