Abstract:
A large portion of the road network in developing countries in Africa consist of Low Volume
Roads (LVRs). Funding for upgrading and maintenance of these roads pose a challenge
for roads authorities as their limited budgets are mainly aimed at highways and major
corridors. Isolated communities bear the burden of inaccessibility to markets, education
and health facilities.
As part of a study that was launched by the Research for Community Access Partnership
(ReCAP) an investigation into alternative surfacings to gravel roads was conducted in
Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone. A stakeholder engagement process, designed around
several workshops, was used to gain insight into the needs of the community. The local
roads authorities, local engineers and technical pavement experts were involved in the
selection of surfacing options which would be most suitable for implementation.
Several other aspects of the surfacing types were investigated such as the initial
construction cost, anticipated maintenance costs and life cycle cost. An exclusive
multicriteria analysis, which used the outputs from the different costing scenarios and the
workshops was conducted, and a Monte Carlo simulation was completed to select the
most appropriate surfacing solutions.
