Mozambique: US-funded office to launch bridge, ring road tender in early 2024

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Mozambique: US-funded office to launch bridge, ring road tender in early 2024

10:35 CAT | 29 Dec 2023

in file CoM

The Office for the Development of Compact II in Mozambique, with US funding of $500 million (€449 million), plans to launch the tender for the construction of a new bridge over the Licungo River, Zambezia, and a ring road in 2024.

In an advertsement requesting market information for this project, published on Thursday by the office and consulted by Lusa, it is stated that the office intends to publish a Specific Tender Announcement and launch the tender documents for the work “during the first part of 2024.”

At issue, the same announcement explains, is the construction of a new bridge and ring road on the N1 highway at the crossing of the Licungo river, near Mocuba.

“The existing bridge on the Licungo river is congested, has exceeded its useful life, and is no longer fit for purpose,” the notice states. “It has been damaged by floods twice since it was built in the 1940s, and there are no practical alternatives for heavy lorries to cross the Licungo River when it is damaged by floods.”

The project is to include the construction of a new 1,800-metre bridge, some 5,000 metres downstream from the current crossing, as well as 16 kilometres of new access road to link the bridge to the N1.

The province of Zambezia, Mozambique’s second most populous, and known for its tea plantations, mangrove swamps and turquoise beaches, is to be the focus of a $500-million (€449-million) project by the US agency Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), The funding, called Compact II and signed off on 20 September on Capitol Hill in Washington in the presence of Mozambique’s head of state, Filipe Nyusi, includes a new bridge on the Licungo River and a ring road in that central coastal province, which was badly hit by the cyclones that have affected Mozambique in recent years.

The MCC is a foreign aid agency funded by the US government that provides grants to developing countries. Its board of directors announced the Mozambique Coastal Connectivity and Resilience Compact, a funding compact that is the second such since 2007, last June.

In this second compact, the focus is on improving transport networks in rural areas, encouraging commercial agriculture through political and fiscal reforms and improving coastal livelihoods through climate resilience initiatives.

The disbursement of funding for the projects already identified is expected to begin in fiscal year 2023, to which is added a contribution of $37.5 million (€35 million) from Mozambique’s government.

Overall, the MCC allocates $310.5 million (€290 million) to Rural Connectivity and Transport (CTR) projects, including the bridge over the Licungo river and the construction of the Mocuba bypass, a project valued at $201 million (€187.7 million).

Almost $83.5 million (€78 million) are earmarked for the construction of rural roads and $11 million (€10.3 million) for road maintenance, among others.

The Reforms and Investment in Agricultural Projects (PRIA) component has been allocated $30 million (€27 million), half of which is for the Agricultural Investment Tax reform package and the rest for setting up the Zambezia Province Commercial Aggregation Platform.

The third structural component, totalling $100 million (€90 million), is aimed at Coastal Livelihood and Climate Resilience (CLCR) projects to strengthen productivity “through sustainable increases in fish and shellfish harvesting and through non-extractive activities” but also using “sustainable ecosystem benefits, such as carbon credits and coastal protection benefits.”

Source: Lusa