Low cost sealing of Ekayu and Pamba roads under the Uganda Road Fund - in Soroti City

Abstract

The Uganda Road Fund (URF) is a body formed by an act of parliament of 2008 which was established for the purpose of financing routine and periodic maintenance of public roads. Uganda Road Fund provides the designated Agencies with funds to carryout maintenance of roads to remain mortorable. The author conducted a field attachment in the tarmacking of low volume traffic roads of Ekayu and Pamba Roads in Western Division in Soroti City with the objective to relate the knowledge and skills of project management acquired during the course of study with actual construction practices in this project. The author used desk studies, focused group discussion, observation and inspection as some of the methods to derive findings in this report. This project was initiated by then Soroti Municipal Council on account of reducing the Dust in the Central Business District by using tarmac for low volume trafficked roads .The other reason was because the Municipality used to spend a lot of money gravelling many roads but the gravel is getting depleted in the surrounding areas and also not environmentally friendly hence shifting the attention to tarmacking using the LCS technology which provides a viable alternative for road surfacing to address the scarcity of good gravel. LCS is being implemented in Uganda currently by providing durable road surfacing which reduces on maintenance needs and gravel loss, and hence the need for the natural gravel resources. Use of LCS will in turn also reduce both transport time and maintenance costs. LCS involves use of labour-based methods that offers job opportunities for women and men from poor rural households. It also creates business opportunities for local labour-based trained contractors and thus contributes to the local economic growth Soroti Municipal council then using the Uganda Road Fund fundings, provides a budget in every financial year to tarmack 1km (One). The procurement process was conducted by Soroti Municipal Council then by running an advert under open bidding where bidders applied and Pehan Uganda Ltd emerged the best evaluated bidders and was awarded the contract at USH. 554,924,559/=. After the a ward of the contract to Pehan (U) Ltd ,road construction works commenced and were supervised by the Municipal Engineer and monitoring by other stake holders. The interim payment certificates are prepared by the Municipal Engineer. During supervision, the contractor observed the health and safety practices, executed quality of works, and complied with contract agreement provisions. During the project execution, the author appreciated that some construction project management practices were exercised. The Traditional procurement system was used, of procurement, site organization and management, environmental health and safety practices and human resource management. This all conformed to the knowledge and skills acquired by the author during the course in Construction Project Management.