A network of cobblestone roads in the capital is undergoing maintenance, a city government project that covers a fraction of these roads and delayed by almost a year.

With a budget of 30 million Br, the Addis Abeba City Roads Authority (AACRA) wants to see the repairs of no less than 50Km of these roads completed in the next two months. Many of the cobblestone roads laid in the neighbourhoods across the city since the mid-2000s are in shoddy condition due to construction failures and damage from infrastructural works.

Cobblestone roads were introduced as a pilot project in Dire Dawa in 2005 after its officials visited the Netherlands. As a result, a massive scale of cobblestone roads was put up over the last 15 years almost in every urban setting in the country, as the government of the EPRDF saw business opportunities for micro and small business that provided labour-intensive jobs. However, scant attention was given to the maintenance and upgrading of these roads.

Officials at the city`s job bureau have selected a little over 110 small enterprises to carry out the maintenance work now, providing job opportunities for over 2,200 people, three times the labour force hired for the construction of the city's most expensive road project from Pushkin Square to Gotera Interchange, in Nifas Silk Laphto District. Costing the city administration 104 million dollars for a kilometre, the 3.8Km road is the second most expensive in Addis Abeba, following the Africa Avenue road, from Mesqel Square to Bole International Airport.

The enterprises, the same companies hired two years ago to build some of the cobblestone roads, have completed the rehabilitation of 10Km, while work on the remaining roads is expected to be carried out over the next two months. However, representing less than three percent of the 2,665Km, the maintenance of these roads has been delayed by almost a year. Officials at the roads Authority blame the COVID-19 pandemic and organisational problems with the Community Engagement Coordination Agency under the city administration. The latter was only reactivated last year.

"We didn't know which cobblestone roads needed maintenance," admitted Addisu Assefa, head of the planning, budget, and strategic management directorate at the City Roads Authority.

The Community Engagement Coordination Agency was dissolved in 2019 by the City Administration, only to be re-instituted the following year. The Agency consists of almost 7,000 councils spread throughout the city's 11 districts, with its main purpose being to survey roads and report damages or irregularities to the authorities. Asfaw Legese serves as head of the Agency and recalled reporting damages to 83,000sqm cobblestone roads that needed maintenance at the beginning of the year.

"A little late because we were busy with community work for COVID-19," he told Fortune.

Though some of the damage to the cobblestone roads can be attributed to regular wear and tear, city authorities believe much of it was caused by avoidable factors such as poor infrastructure planning and substandard construction work.

"Cobblestone roads can last for over 100 years," said Eyasu Solomon, director for communications at the Authority. "It isn`t the case in Ethiopia."