ROADS & BRIDGES
Low-volume roads: potential and pitfalls
T
he term ‘low-volume roads’ covers a wide range of road types – from an access earth road to a district route that links settlements, or a feeder that connects to a network. The term can be applied to secondary, tertiary and access roads in rural and peri-urban areas. One definition might set the threshold at 400 vehicles per day. There are other definitions based on axle loading. For this reason, there isn’t a common characteristic or definition of ‘low volume’. Each road needs to be assessed individually since there are many variables: technical, economic, social and political. Assessment assists in prioritising which routes should be earmarked for new construction and upgrading within the context of limited national, provincial and municipal resources. Cost-benefit analyses determine where spend yields the best results. This must factor in the economic, community wellbeing and ‘targeted’ employment goals – the latter weighted towards labour-intensive construction (LIC) as a job and skills generator. That’s an essential component. Essentially, LIC is the substitution of ‘targeted’ human effort for non-essential, fuel-based, ‘heavy’ equipment during
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IMIESA October 2021
Roads are essential conduits whose construction presents excellent skills development and employment opportunities. This is not just for high-tech construction; more low-tech interventions are especially suited to rural and peri-urban areas. However, to be sustainable, these lower-volume roads still require a specialist engineering design and costing model to work, with the framework provided by legislation. By Robert McCutcheon* the construction and maintenance of infrastructure. It is a proven approach both locally and internationally; however, for it to work effectively, road designers need to incorporate LIC at the design stage and make it a contractual requirement.
Contract framework To be enforceable in South African law, the contract must state that the project is labour-intensive and that the use of equipment is forbidden. Let’s start with the background developments. In 1993, a framework agreement was signed following negotiations between the construction industry (NCLIC), Cosatu and Sanco. James Croswell was responsible for the contractual aspects of the framework agreement. In 1994, the South African
government joined the negotiations. The 10th Revision of the New Framework Agreement (1996) stated in no uncertain terms that: In relation to all employment-intensive construction contracts, it is proposed that the following wording should be used for contract documents in respect of the sanctions relating to employmentintensive works. All or part of this contract has been designated to be constructed employment-intensively. Where only parts of the contract are to be constructed using employment-intensive methods, the relevant items in the Bill of Quantities have been marked in an unambiguous way and include the letters LI in a separate column filled in against every item so
