Low-volume roads: potential and pitfalls

The 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 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.

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*

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

designated. The works, or the part of the works so designated, have to be constructed using employment-intensive methods and the use of machinery, other than machinery permitted for compaction or other purposes specifically agreed to by the Engineer in writing, will not be permitted. Furthermore, in order to ensure that the above is taken seriously, the following should be explicitly stated with respect to payment:

Payment for items which are designated to be constructed employment-intensively will not be paid for unless they are constructed using employment-intensive methods. Any unauthorised use of machinery to carry out any work, which was to be done employment-intensively, notwithstanding the fact that the

Contractor may have paid the labourers to do work, which was actually done by machine, will not be condoned. Payment for the particular operation, or part thereof, will not be certified by the

Engineer. Despite such non-payment, the Contractor’s obligations, in terms of the Contract in respect of this work, will remain unaltered and the fact that the Contractor is not paid for work in the abovementioned circumstances, will not relieve the Contractor in any way from his obligations either in contract or in delict. Any work designated employmentintensive work, which was not carried out using employment-intensive methods will not qualify, where applicable, for the employment-intensive component of a contract and sanctions relating to this aspect may be applied independently. The 1996 New Framework Agreement provided details regarding the clauses and terminology that had to be changed.

Roads authority standpoint

In 2017, Sanral released Horizon 2030. It stated that South Africa’s “high unemployment rate exerts pressure on Sanral to maximise the number of jobs created.”

Sanral’s main focus of operations will remain the construction and maintenance of South Africa’s major roads network. However, alongside its investment in the major network, Sanral has an important new component: a commitment to community development objectives, which include the following: - skills and small contractor development - employment generation - the promotion of women and youth during investment and maintenance. This is a very important development on the part of one of South Africa’s most effective (semi-state) institutions. (The dire situation in South Africa regarding levels of unemployment is far greater than normally reported in the media. In addition, the low educational and skills base among the population challenges rapid improvement in conditions. See ‘What happened to the EPWP Infrastructure Sector?’ in IMIESA October 2020 for a critique of the Expanded Public Works Programme [EPWP].)

Sanral has actively supported the preparation of the new COTO Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Works for South African Road Authorities. In August 2020, these were approved by the Committee of Transport Officials as a draft standard to replace the COLTO Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Works for State Road Authorities (1998 edition). Each chapter contains a section addressing labour enhancement.

To date, from the author’s perspective, one of Sanral’s most important actions (besides its intention to “maximise the number of jobs created”) has been its 2020 decision that the new COTO Standard Specifications (2020) would be mandatory for use in their procurement documents advertised from 1 March 2021. The author strongly disagrees with the use of the term ‘labour enhancement’. However, it is extremely important that Sanral – South Africa’s premier roads authority – has published draft specifications related to the formal use of ‘labour-enhanced’ methods across the entire spectrum of its activities. Sanral’s policies are a great step forward. In the long term, it could be the bedrock for future expansion in labour-based construction.

Confusion creeps in since the draft specifications provide definitions of both ‘labour enhancement’ and ‘labour-intensive’. By their definition, “Labour enhancement is the process of improving the scope for the use of manual labour as an alternative to using machines to increase employment opportunities on a project.”

In turn, “Labour-intensive operations are those operations, which, by their basic nature, require a significant amount of manual labour and to a large extent exclude the use of machines.”

The author does not understand the essential difference between the two definitions, since they both aim to use less ‘machinery’. The latter should be termed ‘fuel-powered heavy equipment’: a hand pump is a ‘machine’.

The author recommends that the Committee should use the term ‘labourintensive’, which has been defined and in use in South Africa since the establishment of the National Public Works Programme (NPWP) in 1994. It is the term used in the President’s SONA. It is the term used in legislation and regulation; most importantly, in the ministerial determination (2002, renewed annually) and subsequently linked, through the Division of Revenue Act (No. 9 of 2021), to the mandatory LI construction of certain categories of municipal infrastructure. It was the term used for the vast majority of the detailed research and experimentation into modern LI construction

and maintenance, which was carried out by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) and the International Labour Organisation (see IMIESA August 2017).

The civil engineering profession has about another year to comment on the COTO specs. The author advocates that COTO uses of the ‘search’ function for ‘labour enhancement’ and replace it with ‘labour-intensive’.

LIC is proper engineering

The author presumes that his recommendations will be ignored. Many engineers condemn consideration of LIC as ‘serious engineering’. In a nutshell, they are concerned that employment will be generated at the expense of ‘time, cost and quality’. Also, they often ask: “Why have 100 problems when you could have just one equipment operator?” The underlying lack of knowledge leads to rejection by clients, consultants and contractors (see SAICE June 2018 and IMIESA articles).

But, please remember: the fact that Sanral has produced draft specifications for “improving the scope for the use of manual labour as an alternative to using machines” is far more important than the author’s objections regarding terminology.

It will be interesting to see whether the new specifications are used in relation to the projected four ‘experimental’ 50 km gravel road stretches proposed at the 2020 and 2021 SONAs. Other than testing the use of the draft specifications, the author considers it unnecessary to use the term ‘experimental’, with all its implications of technical uncertainty and high overhead costs. In order to preserve the momentum of the President’s intentions, it would be sensible to carry out a complementary lower-profile, but broader, approach, which is already contained in Sanral’s Horizon 2030. It emphasises ‘community development’, which is one of the prime motivations for the promotion of LI methods.

In order to generate employment within the community, it is essential to train ‘hands-on’ site supervisors (working foremen/ women). The training must imbue into the ‘hands-on’ site supervisor (an NQF 4 level qualification – mainly matriculants) the knowledge and self-discipline required to efficiently and fairly organise the technically sound work of teams of people.

From a long-term community development perspective, the construction and maintenance of good-quality infrastructure and productive employment generation are critically dependent upon skills development at a proto-artisanal level. These skilled people (mainly matriculants) will have acquired ‘portable’ skills and thus improve their future job prospects.

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Technical details

For LIC, the major opportunities lie in the earthworks components, which comprise over 50% of the cost of civil construction. These are the ELHUS activities, represented by their letters as: • Excavation • Load • Haul • Unload • Spread. In conventional roadbuilding, mass haulage is one of the factors affecting the choice of alignment. The engineer balances cut and fill longitudinally – i.e. along the alignment of the road. Excavated earth materials may have to be hauled considerable distances to be used as fills (termed ‘longitudinal earth balance’). In practice, this can be done efficiently only by machines.

The alternative design strategies suitable for LI methods would be to choose an alignment that balances the earth cut and fill transversely, to ensure that wheelbarrow or tractor-trailer combinations may carry out shorter hauls. This design decision generates employment and avoids hauls longer than can be done effectively by wheelbarrow.

Task-based payment pros and cons

In terms of economic efficiency, it is essential to link the payment of the worker to the successful completion of a task. This is a key area where LIC approaches fail. It all hinges on a properly trained site supervisor to set and manage every task. Different countries have used different terms for this first level of formal site supervision – e.g. ‘junior supervisor’ in Kenya or ‘roadbuilder’ in Botswana. The scale of the project would determine whether there are other levels of supervision on-site. South Africa has something similar, but its implementation remains problematic.

Between 1994 and 2002, negotiations were carried out between government and Cosatu, which resulted in a ministerial determination regarding special public works. The related code of practice covered a wide range of employment terms. For our purposes, the most important principles were: • A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. • A fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage (no work, no pay). • Tasks could be set by a properly trained supervisor. • Payment was dependent upon the successful completion of the task.