SARF/IRF/PIARC Conference 2018
The following ReCAP papers were presented at the conference:
| Type | Title | Sub Title | Author's institution | Author | Year | Abstract |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Measuring Road Condition of the First Mile | TRL | Workman, R. | 2018 | The efficiency of rural transport is important for improving financial and time costs in the delivery of produce and for reducing post-harvest losses for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. There is growing recognition that rural infrastructure needs to be planned together with transport services to minimise transport costs, reduce crop wastage and gain the maximum advantage for farmers. TRL is undertaking research in Tanzania and Kenya on moving harvest along the primary transport segment, or ‘First Mile', from farm to established road access. This project is concerned with the cost-beneficial improvement of access, by assessing the condition of these primary road segments to determine the effect on crop damage and wastage. The condition assessment is being carried out using a variety of high-tech methods, in addition to traditional visual surveys being assessed from DashCam videos of the road. A quantitative assessment of road roughness was measured using three methods, maximum comfortable achievable vehicle speed, smartphone apps and accelerometers. Accelerometers were placed in both passenger and goods vehicles; in amongst the produce when vehicles are loaded. The accelerometer data was analysed, along with socio-economic data, to gain a greater understanding of First Mile access problems that will result in recommendations for improvement. | ||
| Capturing and Disseminating Rural Transport Knowledge from Senior Experts | ReCAP;Transaid | Visser, C.;Clark, S. | 2018 | Since the start of the 6-year Research for Community Access Partnership (ReCAP) in 2014, it has been observed that the already small pool of experienced senior international rural transport experts is aging, and that action should be undertaken to capture and retain the knowledge of this pool for future practitioners. A dedicated effort to inventorise the experts and to capture and disseminate their knowledge has been implemented during 2018 to ensure the long-term availability of their knowledge for the sector, independently of their actual involvement in the ReCAP programme. The project mainly (but not solely) addressed capturing the tacit knowledge of the senior experts, i.e. “the skills, ideas and experiences that people have but are not codified and may not necessarily be easily expressed.” (Chugh et al, 2015). This paper will go into the methodology and media used to extract this tacit knowledge. It has been complemented with (a selection of) explicit knowledge that the experts authored or contributed to. Furthermore, the paper will address the means and channels of dissemination that have been put in place to spread the knowledge as widely possible. It will equally address the plans and progress for a ReCAP mentoring platform with involvement of the targeted experts. | ||
| Building the Next Generation of Transport Leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa | ReCAP;Mott MacDonald;ASANRA | Sampson, L.;Leta, N.;Kelly, K.;Malota, J. | 2018 | A scoping study for a Transport Sector Leadership Development Programme (TSLDP) was commissioned as part of the ReCAP programme. The study is now moving into an implementation phase based on the findings of the scoping study and further deliberations by the ReCAP member countries, ASANRA and the ReCAP Programme Management Unit (PMU). This paper outlines the requirements to establish a Centre for Sub-Saharan Transport Leadership (CSSTL), whose role would be to develop and implement the sustainable delivery options for future transport leadership capacity building. Three levels of delivery options will be discussed: 1. Mentorship programmes, where candidates receive on-the-job training and mentoring focusing on leadership and management in the transport sector; 2. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses (existing and new) which encapsulate the leadership, managerial and technical content identified for leading transport professionals in Africa; and 3. A recognised post-graduate qualification in transport leadership. | ||
| Improved Rural Road Network Asset Management Through Appropriate Technology | Intech Associates; Clanview | Petts, R.;Gongera, K. | 2018 | Rural road networks in Sub-Saharan Africa often remain in generally poor condition, with a deteriorating cycle of poor condition and reluctance to fund maintenance. The consequence for the agricultural sector and rural communities is poor accessibility and high transport costs. There is now the prospect to address all of these issues by utilising proven tractor technology for road rehabilitation and maintenance techniques at a much lower cost than traditional heavy equipment approaches. Thus, rural tractor utilisation can be raised benefiting both road and agri- sectors with lower unit costs. Consequently, road maintenance will become cheaper and more sustainable, and agricultural production and transport costs will be reduced. The tractor attachments; such as towed graders, trailers and bowsers can be manufactured locally contributing to the support of the local commercial economy. The capital investment requirements for tractor equipment are also a fraction of those required for heavy civil engineering plant, and are thus more affordable for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in an environment where credit/capital is scarce and expensive. | ||
| Making Africa's Roads More Resilient to Climate Change | CSIR;Paige-Green consulting | Paige-Green, P.;Verhaeghe, B. | 2018 | The inevitable impacts of climate change on the already stressed low volume rural road networks in Africa will have dire consequences in many countries. As the changes in climatic conditions increase, the impacts on road networks will become more severe. An assessment of these impacts related to various climatic stressors has indicated a wide range of adaptation measures to improve climate resilience. However, it is essential that the road networks are assessed adequately to identify vulnerable areas and the necessary adaptation techniques. This will involve the visual assessment of all roads within each network by assessors trained to identify specific conditions and consequences. The paper describes the main stressors and impacts on various components of the infrastructure and identifies the properties that need assessment and how this should be carried out. | ||
| Surfacing Options for Low Volume Roads in Mozambique | ANE | Namburete, C.;Dabo, F.;Calisto, Z. | 2018 | Two low volume roads in Inhambane and Zambezia provinces in Mozambique have been constructed using locally available materials not complying with traditional standards as base course. Four different surfacing options were used on these roads: gravel, penetration macadam, Otta seal and sand seal (armoured base). The roads were built between 2009 and 2013. Monitoring sections have been established on these roads and are being regularly assessed in terms of the Mozambique standard Monitoring Protocols. After up to 7 years the sections are generally performing well. Localised defects are attributed to poor construction quality and inadequate supervision on site. The performance of the three surfacing solutions was analysed and compared with the performance of the gravel section. The paper summarises the findings of the investigations and concludes that all the surfacing options are technically viable. However, each situation needs to be assessed in terms of its economic viability, particularly on roads carrying low traffic (less than 100 vpd) or where the necessary construction materials must be hauled over long distances. | ||
| A Stochastic Model for the Determination of Rural Road Maintenance Financing Needs | University of Birmingham | Kome, P.;Ghataora, G.;Burrow, M.;Bopoto, C. | 2018 | Rural road maintenance in Sub-Saharan Africa is underfunded as the benefits are less tangible than investment in building new roads or funding strategic or national road development. As a result, investment in rural road maintenance is often inefficient, not transparent and motivated by non-needs driven factors. This is having a significant effect on the socio-economic development of rural communities. To ameliorate this, there is a need to present the benefits of rural road maintenance in a concise, transparent and straightforward manner that is meaningful to politicians and senior decision makers. The research describes work that was carried out to develop a probabilistic tool which is capable of determining the effects of maintenance on road asset condition over time at the network level under budget constraints. The tool consists of Markov based rural road asset deterioration and maintenance effects models. These have been determined as a function of climate and traffic for a variety of assets and geo-environments in the region. The robustness and viability of the tool is demonstrated via data collected from three Sub-Saharan countries. | ||
| Adoption of Road Asset valuation that takes into account economic, environmental, political and social factors as a means of prioritising development and preservation of rural road assets | University of Birmingham | Kakiiza, R.;Burrow, M.;Ghataora, G.;Kome, P. | 2018 | This paper proposes a new rural road valuation methodology encompassing economic, environmental, political and social factors as a means of prioritising development and preservation of rural road assets. A combination of models have been adopted to monetise and rank the road assets for prioritisation. The models include; Modified Transport demand model (MTDM) for valuation of social-economic benefits, Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) method for valuing and ranking the social – economic benefits to be considered for monetisation calculation and a value model (VM) that combines all the other models to calculate the actual value of the road asset. | ||
| Economic Growth through Effective Rural Road Asset Management | CDS | Geddes, R. | 2018 | The Africa Community Access Partnership (AFCAP) is providing technical assistance and capacity building initiatives to foster sustainable improvements in asset management performance in selected rural road agencies in Zambia, Uganda, Sierra Leone and the Western Cape region of South Africa. This paper outlines the methodologies and tools that have been developed to assess performance in rural road asset management and achieve improvements in performance over time. The paper summarises progress that has been made in the first two years since the project's inception. Central to the research methodology is a self-assessment framework which is being used by the road agencies to compare their management performance against the other participating organisations, and to identify and prioritise areas of asset management which are in need of attention. The initial findings of the research show that gaps in pre-requisites for sustainable road preservation exist in three project countries: Sierra Leone, Zambia and Uganda. The Western Cape's situation is in a more advanced state. | ||
| Performance of Mechanically Stabilised Sand Road Bases in Mozambique | ANE | Cumbane, C.;Dzimba, M. | 2018 | In Mozambique only 20% of the classified road network is paved. Locally available materials for the base are often out of specification and the solution normally adopted for pavement layers is conventional chemical stabilisation. The Agostinho-Neto to Mutamba Road in Inhambane Province, Mozambique, was constructed under a programme of Targeted Interventions for Low Volume Roads. The objective of the programme was to find technical and economically viable options for local conditions. The research project has shown that the locally available sandy materials can be mechanically stabilised to provide an adequate base course without the high cost of conventional stabilisation. | ||
| Uptake and Embedment as Key Elements of a Sustainable Rural Transport Research Programme | ReCAP Technical Panel | Cook, J.;Greening, A. | 2018 | Although applied research can and should play an increasingly significant role in improving the effectiveness and sustainability of this infrastructure, there remain barriers to be overcome in ensuring speedier application of the research outcomes. The Research for Community Access Partnership (ReCAP) is a UKAID-DFID funded initiative comprising AsCAP (Asian Community Access Partnership and AfCAP (African Community Access Partnership) and the previous South East Asian Community Access Programme (SEACAP). Its aim is to improve accessibility of the rural poor in Africa and Asia to economic opportunities through applied research and by strengthening the evidence base on more cost effective and reliable low volume roads and transport services. ReCAP has taken on board lessons learnt from previous research programmes and has structured its applied research on rural transport projects within a framework that includes dissemination, uptake and embedment as integral programme elements alongside capacity development. | ||
| Approaches to Appraise the Impact of Rural Road Maintenance in Sub Saharan Africa | University of Birmingham | Burrow, M.;Ghataora, G.;Shumbusho, R.;Bopoto, C.;Lema, C. | 2018 | A number of agencies have commissioned empirical studies to demonstrate the impacts of investment in rural road infrastructure. This paper analyses published methodologies and draws a number of lessons which can be learnt for similar studies in Sub-Saharan Africa. These findings are utilised to devise an econometric approach which has been developed to assess the impacts of rural road maintenance on the livelihoods of rural communities in thirty communities in three rural districts in Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia. The results of the study suggest that road condition has an impact on travel times and transport costs to the local markets. However, the sale prices at the nearest largest market of a variety of goods that have been exported from the communities considered, or imported to the same, were not found to be related to road condition. This suggests that vendors agree, formally or informally, to fix the prices of goods and therefore transport cost savings are retained by the village or market vendor rather than being passed on to the consumer. In some areas it was found that transport availability and costs are governed by the presence of large numbers of motorcycles and their overloading of motorcycles, rather than by road condition. | ||
| Reanalysing existing data to enhance understanding on safe motorcycle and three-wheeler use for rural transport in Ghana | Amend;Transaid | Adu, J.;Rettie, N. | 2018 | The use of motorcycles and motorised three-wheelers in Africa has increased greatly in recent years. In rural areas, motorcycles are now the most common type of vehicles in many countries. They are often operated as taxis, charging a fare to carry passengers and goods. Ghana is one of four countries in which a research study on "Enhancing understanding on safe motorcycle and three-wheeler use for rural transport and the implications for appropriate training and regulatory frameworks" is being supported by the African Community Access Partnership (AfCAP). The other countries are Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. A key part of the study in Ghana is to reanalyse relevant existing data, but with a rural focus, thereby providing a detailed understanding of issues in rural areas. Through this study, the data has been reanalysed to establish the magnitude and pattern of motorcycle-related deaths and injuries on low-volume rural roads. Similarly, data from other government departments has also been reanalysed with a rural focus. The research also involves a survey of motorcycle and three-wheeler riders, owners and users, as well as non-users, to understand the benefits and disbenefits of these modes. A review of policy and legislation will identify opportunities to increase the effectiveness of regulation. The study's findings will inform decision-makers as they undertake a review of the existing ban on motorcycle taxis in Ghana. |