DoT Wins Prestigious SAICE Award for African Renaissance Road Upgrading Programme on P68

by Mahendren Manicum (Project Leader)

ARRUP is by far the boldest roads initiative yet undertaken by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport and the investment of R720 million over 5 years is possibly the biggest capital investment in rural infrastructure ever made by a provincial department. And as a result of the hard work and dedication of the team, the Department’s ARRUP programme has recently received the prestigious SAICE Award for Engineering Excellence in the category of Community-based projects.

The team, lead from Head Office, comprised of Mahendren Manicum and Dave Bryan, with the geometric design of the project being undertaken by Russell Dally and Alastair de Beer. The consultant is TPA represented by: Roger Purchase who is the Engineer, Sunil Rupee responsible for the documentation and overall support, Hugh McGlincy who is the Resident engineer and assistant resident engineer and Kamal Singh who was largely responsible for the excellent workmanship delivered by the contractor's. 

An improved capacity to manage communities and local economic development initiatives was achieved by community participation through our Public Liaison Committee PLC.

Mr Manicum acknowledged the administration component from Head Office Preggy Pillay, Vuyiswa Msomi & Sbu Ngidi saying that if it were not for their speedy processing of payments, this project would not have been possible.

THE LOCALITY AND SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

The St Faiths Arrup project extends from Highflats to Umtentweni near Port Shepstone with total length of 48 km with a budget of R144 million. This construction was made up of two sections P68-1 and P68-2.

The upgrading of Main Road 68-2 is a 6-year project starting at the Assisi Clinic in the east with the completion of sidewalks, drainage and earthworks, and ending at St Faiths in the west with the construction of 24km of black top main road at a cost of approx. 80 million. The description of this contract for this award is concentrated from km 16 to km 21.2 on P68-2. The sidewalks contracts consisted of 3 equal section of approximately 1 km each. All work was carried out by Stage 1b Emerging Contractors registered on the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transports' database.

The primary operations involved the laying of kerbs, construction of asphalt sidewalks and concrete/ grass lined v-drains, which you will see later in the presentation. Other work included signposting and installation of bus-shelters. All works included a fair amount of traffic accommodation and the implementation of road safety measures.

Stage 1 Contractors laying kerbs as well as completed sidewalk.

All contracts boast a high local labour component as well as a fair proportion of female employees. A total of 41 males and 25 females were employed for a period of 5 months resulting in approximately 7260 person days with about R 450 000 in the form of wages going back to the community.

The bulk earthworks and drainage-works followed traditional methods of construction but were executed by stage 3 and stage 2 emerging contractors respectfully. Local labour was also employed for these contracts as flagmen, line/level/dip men, bricklayers and pipe layers.

Stage 3 Bulk earthworks contract Bhekani Construction.	Stage 2 Contractor for Drainage Senzakonke Construction

All contracts were completed to specification and well below their respective budgets Total budget R 2. 3 million spent R 2 million

One may ask what where the reasons for this award for the most outstanding civil engineering achievement in the category of community based projects

But what were the reasons for the award:

• The unbundling of work for the creation of a maximum number of opportunities for Emerging Contractors also ensuring that plant was kept to a minimum to create maximum possible labour opportunities.

• Previous limited Engineering experience of the contractors and the high skill-level required for the new work.

• Placement of a training & mentorship programme to provide the contractors with the technical skills (setting out of the work, plan interpretations, construction procedures, programming and planning) and business skills (daily costing, allowable calculations revenue earned, plant and material management and labour control) needed to successfully complete a contract.

• The complete and transparent involvement of the community (in the form of a Project Liaison Committee) in all project-level decision making.

• Careful consideration at all times with regards to environmental Issues.

• High-level employment of local labour and community empowerment through a democratically elected Labour Selection Committee as well as policy guidelines in labour selection. 

• No compromise for site safety excellent standard maintained at all times resulted in no accidents.

• Exceptional quality of finish especially as this was the first time that these contractors undertook projects of this type and magnitude. This was highlighted by the president of Saice to me.

• Community development in promoting maths and science at schools as well as undertaking beautification of bus shelters run by a special project aimed at encouraging scholars to express their artistic talents.

All projects were strategically aligned to meet the objectives of the ARRUP Programme, which are to:

• Improve road and public transport safety,
• Develop people, the economy and the infrastructure of the province,
• Institutionalise public participation and strengthen democratic governance,
• Facilitate rural development and ensure infrastructural balance,
• Reduce poverty and inequality,
• Facilitate growth and development of the road construction industry so as to be fully representative of the demographic profile of the province; and ensure financial accountability.

CONCLUSION

Minister S’bu Ndebele, at his first ARRUP sod turning ceremony, had this to say about the ARRUP programme: "Our African Renaissance Upgrading Programme is about constructing those transport corridors that will breathe new life into the economy of our province unquote today we celebrate a great achievement of an award made by an independent institution to bear testimony to a great vision and I believe that this is only one of many awards that the department will receive as ARRUP moves from its infancy to the economic power house we know it is."

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