iTRARR Conference 2016
ReCAP supported the conference by sponsoring the participation of 17 international speakers and delegates, through participation of ReCAP team members in the organising committee, through assistance in the conference paper review process and through the organisation of three workshops/conference sessions. The topics covered during the workshops included:
- New specifications for the effective management of rural roads;
- Geometric design for low volume roads and the implications for road user safety;
- Gender mainstreaming in the transport sector.
General conference reports:
ReCAP supported papers and worskhops at the iTRARR 2016 conference:
| Type | Title | Sub Title | Author's institution | Author | Year | Abstract |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Can Humans Predict the Future? Consequences of Inaccurate Traffic Forecasting | Conference Paper | Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) | Endale, A.;Otto, A.;Melaku, A. | 2016 | In designing roads, traffic volume, traffic loading and subgrade strength are major inputs whose values bear a strong influence on the design outcome. For this reason, it is important that their values are as accurate as possible. Inaccurate estimation of the above inputs leads to inequitable distribution of resources, reduced rate of network upgrading, early failures or overly conservative and expensive designs, and reduced benefits to the population. This study demonstrates the difficulty in predicting traffic growth, pavement design loading and the consequences of the estimated predictions. The findings demonstrate the implication of the approaches used in estimating traffic loading for pavement design on the final pavement structure and consequently the design cost. Therefore, equal importance should be placed on detailed traffic studies as is done on pavement materials, especially for low-volume sealed roads. | |
| The Benefits and Challenges of Increasing Motorcycle Use for Rural Access | Conference Paper | ReCAP PMU | Starkey, P. | 2016 | In many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, most vehicles on low-volume rural roads are now motorcycles. In many countries, motorcycle taxi services have developed and spread rapidly, often becoming an essential part of rural living. Motorcycle taxis operate in the informal private sector. Their spontaneous spread has had little regulatory control. They provide many benefits. Regulatory frameworks and enforcement are often weak. There is a need for research and greater understanding of appropriate ways to effectively regulate (and self-regulate) motorcycle operators for improved safety and ensuring the benefits of improved access are shared by all rural people. | |
| Economic Growth through Effective Road Asset Management | Workshop Report (Final) | Roughton International; Civil Design Solutions, Africa | Geddes, R. | 2016 | AfCAP is funding a research and capacity building project on asset management for rural roads. The purpose of the project is to achieve economic and social benefits for local communities in rural areas as a result of improved performance in road asset management. The project is currently in the Formulation Phase and a draft Design Report has been submitted. The key recommendations within this report were discussed at a stakeholder workshop on 15th March 2016 during the International Transport and Road Research (iTRARR) conference in Mombasa, Kenya. This report provides the outcomes of the workshop. | |
| A Paradigm Shift in Geometric Design of Low Volume Rural Roads | Hongve, J.;Pinard, M. I. | 2016 | The presentation was prepared for the AfCAP workshop on Geometric Design and Road User Safety, held at the iTRARR Conference, 14-16 March 2016, Mombasa, Kenya. The presentation addresses the case for a set of basic, affordable LVR geometric standards based on actual road use coupled with road safety measures to achieve satisfactory safety level. | |||
| Geometric Design and Road Surface: Impacts on Motorcycle Safety | Presentation | Amend | Bishop, T.;Malekela, G. | 2016 | AFCAP-funded research carried out by Amend has found that crash rates among rural motorcycle drivers in Tanzania are as high as 96 per 100 drivers per year in some areas (Amend, 2015). Amend's research has found that while road user behaviour is the primary contributory factor in rural motorcycle crashes, the design and the condition of roads also contributes to crashes. This presentation summarizes the findings of the aforementioned research and discusses the impacts of Road Design and Condition on Road Safety. The topics covered include: • Safety improvements to all road types – new and existing, sealed and unsealed • Providing a safe width and cross-section • Providing a safe riding surface • Ensuring the surrounding environment is ‘forgiving' • Encouraging the use of appropriate speeds • Providing warning of hazards Starting in January 2016, Amend is currently piloting the use of the Guidance Note by District Engineers during the upgrading of rural roads in two districts. | |
| Asphaltic Concrete Pavement Design Incorporating Life Cycle Analysis | Presentation | Koranteng-Yorke, J. B. | 2016 | Most road pavement design methods currently in use do not give opportunity to undertake critical evaluation of life cycle of the performance of the newly design road pavement. In the absence of this assessment, it is always assumed that existing road agency's maintenance management systems will have the capacity to meet the maintenance requirements. The setting of road maintenance policies used in the road maintenance management systems are also not informed by the respective road pavement designs. In some instances, a general rule is used to establish the maintenance policy, say, all asphaltic concrete roads are due for overlay at 10 years interval. The challenge is that current practice in road pavement design and the maintenance are not coterminous. This paper presents an objective methodology using Mechanistic-Empirical (M-E) pavement design approach and HDM-4 life cycle modelling to address these problems using Benin as a case study. The case study has given a practical demonstration of how to select and calibrate the M-E design tool appropriate for Benin condition. Estimation of the Residual Life of the existing road pavements to determine the investment options (rehabilitation, reconstruction, upgrading, etc.) and the selection of appropriate pavement designs were achieved. The selected investment options were optimised by economic analysis with the HDM-4 which was also used to carry out Life Cycle Analysis of the optimised pavement design to establish the maintenance regime. Finally, the financial outlay during the design lives of the respective optimum pavement designs was established. | ||
| Prediction of CBR using DCP for local subgrade materials | Presentation | Feleke, G.;Araya, A. A. | 2016 | There is lack of correlation between Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) and Soaked California Bearing Ratio (CBR) for local subgrade materials. The aim of this study is to develop relationships between DCP and soaked CBR, DCP and unsoaked CBR, soaked CBR and unsoaked CBR for fine and coarse grained soils. This paper presents relationships between DCP and CBR for local Subgrade materials. The relationship developed in this research considers subgrade material's behavior and largely saves time and cost of preliminary and detailed engineering works of road projects. A series of DCP tests in the field, soaked CBR at OMC, and unsoaked CBR at field conditions in the laboratory are conducted. Based on the field and laboratory test results relationships between soaked CBR and DCP, unsoaked CBR and DCP, and soaked CBR and unsoaked CBR are established for fine and coarse grained soils. The relationship developed between DCP and CBR value for fine grained soil shows better than that of for coarse grained soil. | ||
| An investigation on the Influence of Institutional Capacity and Applicability of Technology in Implementation of URRAP: The cases study of Tigray Region. | Presentation | Gebre, D. H.;Araya, A. A. | 2016 | Under Low Volume Road, (LVR), Universal Rural Roads Access Program, (URRAP) is a new program in Ethiopia aimed to access the rural community and to afford all season access road to markets and public services. The program was introduced in 2012 throughout Ethiopia and specifically in Tigray in 34 weredas, it was planned to have at least one completed project per wereda in that year. The aim of the paper was to find the influential factors which affect the implementation of the program as case study in the region more targeting the technology applicability and institution capacity. Questionnaires, interviews and site visit were used to find the degree of influence of the 11 major factors by dividing to 45 sub factors which can describe the major factor. The collected data was analyzed using Relative Important Index (RII) and multiple correlations to find which factors were highly influential in implementation of the program. The mean of the major influencing factor was tabulated and geometric design influence (RII=0.78), influence due to poor coordination between the stake holders (RII=0.69) and lack of community participation were the main influencing factors which affect the implementation of the program. The top influential factors in different sites were quite different which shows one fit for all principle was not valid in the program. | ||
| Tanzania motorcycle taxi rider training: assessment and development of appropriate training curriculum | Presentation | Transaid | Barber, C.;Rettie, N. | 2016 | Between December 2014 and April 2015, Transaid, working closely with key stakeholders in Tanzania, have developed an appropriate training curriculum for motorcycle taxi riders (for the full curriculum see annex A). Of the 1.25 million people killed on the roads annually and the 20-50 million people who are injured and/or suffer long term disability, 90% of these occur in low and middle income countries1. In recent years, motorcycle taxis, or “boda bodasâ€, have emerged rapidly as an important means of transport in both urban and rural settings particularly in East Africa. They provide an important means of access to essential services for local communities in hard to reach areas. However there are also legitimate safety concerns and improving boda boda training, licensing and testing has the potential to reduce death and injury. This AFCAP-funded programme began by gathering and assessing any existing motorcycle training curricula to identify any gaps that need to be addressed. It was vital that the development of the training curriculum had strong support from the relevant training schools and regulatory authorities as well as feeding in valuable input from the motorcycle taxi riders themselves and addressing the needs of passengers. To ensure this key stakeholder input and support, SUMATRA and the Traffic Police were engaged from the very start and the project team conducted interviews with Driving Schools and regulatory authorities. Two stakeholder workshops were facilitated; one in Bagamoyo, which took a innovative participatory approach, gathering input from boda boda riders, owners and passengers The second workshop took place in Dar es Salaam and focused on gaining feedback and input from the key regulatory authorities and ministries. This final report details the outcomes from these activities as well as presenting the final developed curriculum, proposed next steps and proposals for licensing, testing and training. | |
| Cost effective sustainable slope protection solution of rural roads at flooding regions | Presentation | Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Bangladesh | Azad, A. K.;Matsushima, K. | 2016 | Bangladesh is a sandwich country between the Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal. The rivers of the country carry a huge amount of upstream water and therefore the rural roads along the rivers and the alluvial plains are often subjected to floods and erosion. Protection of road embankment slopes was difficult and sometimes construction of retaining wall was the only solution. LGED with assistance from a JICA Technical assistance project has developed a sustainable and cost effective solution for protection of steep slopes with soil bag. The cost of the slope protection works is nearly 40% of protection with retaining walls. The foundation of the protection should be in stable earth. Wooden piles may be used beneath the foundation to avoid scouring. The foundation is constructed with brick soling and a lean concrete above it. The protective materials are made of soil/sand bag. The bags can be made of jute or geosynthetic. The soil/sand cement ratio can be varied from 4:1 to 8:1. The stability of the protection work lies in correct positioning and placing of bags. Under different trial situation, the correct positioning of the bags has been found as 10° inclination at the first layer and 18°at all the upper layers. This method of slope protection can be replicated in flooded regions as well as in hilly region where stability of slope is a great concern. | |
| Development of optimal road maintenance fund allocation framework | Odoki, J. B.;Odongo, M. | 2016 | Ideally, road maintenance funds should be allocated as and when maintenance requirements fall due. However this cannot often be achieved due to limited availability of road maintenance funds. In many developing countries, road maintenance needs are huge and available resources are not sufficient to allow all desired maintenance activities and interventions to be carried out.This paper describes the development of an equitable, transparent, fair and justifiable approach to allocation of road maintenance resources. The key research element is the investigation of the key relationships between road user charges and road agency costs based on the principles of efficiency and equity. It introduces a novel approach to reduce biases in road maintenance fund allocation in a country. To test the validity and demonstrate the application of the framework developed, a worked example has been presented to allocate an assumed available budget. The framework developed provides an objective way of investing in road network preservation by balancing between efficiency and equity and thereby improve decision making in road asset management. | |||
| Case Study: HDM-4 adaptation for analyzing Kenya roads | Odoki, J. B. | 2016 | Â This paper presents a case study to adapt the highway development and management tool (HDM-4) for investigating road investment choices in Kenya. Roads constitute the most important mode of transport in Kenya since more than 93% of all freight and passenger traffic is transported by road. Kenya's public road network comprises some 161,451km of which 14,561km is paved while 146,890km is unpaved. The estimated value of the road asset is KShs 2.5 trillion and this represents a significant portion of the country's public investments. Given its contribution to the country's socioeconomic development and the public investment it represents, the roads network must be continuously developed, managed and maintained in a prudent and effective manner. | |||
| Asphaltic Concrete Pavement Design Incorporating Life Cycle Analysis | Case Study of Benin | Koranteng-Yorke, J. B. | 2016 | Most road pavement design methods currently in use do not give opportunity to undertake critical evaluation of life cycle of the performance of the newly design road pavement. In the absence of this assessment, it is always assumed that existing road agency's maintenance management systems will have the capacity to meet the maintenance requirements. The setting of road maintenance policies used in the road maintenance management systems are also not informed by the respective road pavement designs. In some instances, a general rule is used to establish the maintenance policy, say, all asphaltic concrete roads are due for overlay at 10 years interval. The challenge is that current practice in road pavement design and the maintenance are not coterminous. This paper presents an objective methodology using Mechanistic-Empirical (M-E) pavement design approach and HDM-4 life cycle modelling to address these problems using Benin as a case study. The case study has given a practical demonstration of how to select and calibrate the M-E design tool appropriate for Benin condition. Estimation of the Residual Life of the existing road pavements to determine the investment options (rehabilitation, reconstruction, upgrading, etc.) and the selection of appropriate pavement designs were achieved. The selected investment options were optimised by economic analysis with the HDM-4 which was also used to carry out Life Cycle Analysis of the optimised pavement design to establish the maintenance regime. Finally, the financial outlay during the design lives of the respective optimum pavement designs was established. | ||
| Prediction of CBR using DCP for local subgrade materials | Feleke, G.;Araya, A. A. | 2016 | There is lack of correlation between Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) and Soaked California Bearing Ratio (CBR) for local subgrade materials. The aim of this study is to develop relationships between DCP and soaked CBR, DCP and unsoaked CBR, soaked CBR and unsoaked CBR for fine and coarse grained soils. This paper presents relationships between DCP and CBR for local Subgrade materials. The relationship developed in this research considers subgrade material's behavior and largely saves time and cost of preliminary and detailed engineering works of road projects. A series of DCP tests in the field, soaked CBR at OMC, and unsoaked CBR at field conditions in the laboratory are conducted. Based on the field and laboratory test results relationships between soaked CBR and DCP, unsoaked CBR and DCP, and soaked CBR and unsoaked CBR are established for fine and coarse grained soils. The relationship developed between DCP and CBR value for fine grained soil shows better than that of for coarse grained soil. | |||
| An investigation on the Influence of Institutional Capacity and Applicability of Technology in Implementation of URRAP: The cases study of Tigray Region. | Gebre, D. H.;Araya, A. A. | 2016 | Under Low Volume Road, (LVR), Universal Rural Roads Access Program, (URRAP) is a new program in Ethiopia aimed to access the rural community and to afford all season access road to markets and public services. The program was introduced in 2012 throughout Ethiopia and specifically in Tigray in 34 weredas, it was planned to have at least one completed project per wereda in that year. The aim of the paper was to find the influential factors which affect the implementation of the program as case study in the region more targeting the technology applicability and institution capacity. Questionnaires, interviews and site visit were used to find the degree of influence of the 11 major factors by dividing to 45 sub factors which can describe the major factor. The collected data was analyzed using Relative Important Index (RII) and multiple correlations to find which factors were highly influential in implementation of the program. The mean of the major influencing factor was tabulated and geometric design influence (RII=0.78), influence due to poor coordination between the stake holders (RII=0.69) and lack of community participation were the main influencing factors which affect the implementation of the program. The top influential factors in different sites were quite different which shows one fit for all principle was not valid in the program. | |||
| Tanzania motorcycle taxi rider training: assessment and development of appropriate training curriculum | Final Report | Transaid | Barber, C.;Rettie, N. | 2016 | Between December 2014 and April 2015, Transaid, working closely with key stakeholders in Tanzania, have developed an appropriate training curriculum for motorcycle taxi riders (for the full curriculum see annex A). Of the 1.25 million people killed on the roads annually and the 20-50 million people who are injured and/or suffer long term disability, 90% of these occur in low and middle income countries1. In recent years, motorcycle taxis, or “boda bodasâ€, have emerged rapidly as an important means of transport in both urban and rural settings particularly in East Africa. They provide an important means of access to essential services for local communities in hard to reach areas. However there are also legitimate safety concerns and improving boda boda training, licensing and testing has the potential to reduce death and injury. This AFCAP-funded programme began by gathering and assessing any existing motorcycle training curricula to identify any gaps that need to be addressed. It was vital that the development of the training curriculum had strong support from the relevant training schools and regulatory authorities as well as feeding in valuable input from the motorcycle taxi riders themselves and addressing the needs of passengers. To ensure this key stakeholder input and support, SUMATRA and the Traffic Police were engaged from the very start and the project team conducted interviews with Driving Schools and regulatory authorities. Two stakeholder workshops were facilitated; one in Bagamoyo, which took a innovative participatory approach, gathering input from boda boda riders, owners and passengers The second workshop took place in Dar es Salaam and focused on gaining feedback and input from the key regulatory authorities and ministries. This final report details the outcomes from these activities as well as presenting the final developed curriculum, proposed next steps and proposals for licensing, testing and training. |