A strip road is a

dirt road A dirt road or track is a type of unpaved road not paved with asphalt, concrete, brick, or stone; made from the native material of the land surface through which it passes, known to highway engineers as subgrade material. Terminology Simi ...

with two narrow, parallel strips of

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

, one for each wheel. Roads of this kind are found in parts of Southern Africa and parts of Asia. When two cars on a strip road approach each other from opposite directions, each is expected to move away from the centre of the road and use only one strip until the other car has passed. Asphalt strip roads were built in

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...

, as Zimbabwe was then known, from 1933 onwards as a relatively inexpensive way of opening up the country for development. Asphalt was chosen after an early experiment with

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

strip roads proved too costly. By 1938, strip roads covered a total distance of 1,890 kilometres, including an unbroken stretch linking the capital, Salisbury (today called

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

), with the southern border town of

Beitbridge Beitbridge is a border town in the province of Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe. The name also refers to the border post and bridge spanning the Limpopo River, which forms the political border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The border on the S ...

. By 1945 the total exceeded 3,300 kilometres. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, many of the strip roads were replaced with full-width asphalt roads but some remain, particularly in more remote areas. In neighbouring

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

, the phrase "strip road" sometimes refers to a road with a single strip of asphalt in the middle, wide enough for one vehicle.Zambia: The Bradt Travel Guide http://www.zambia-travel-guide.com/bradt_guide.asp?bradt=170

References

{{Reflist Types of roads