Good Morning Mr Philemon,
Don’t you just love the subject and I know how passionate you are about the Lae City Roads; I am too. Anyway, after reading through your article in the Weekender, I decided to contribute some more of my thoughts on to the issue. I am prompted very much now than before after listening to the comments raised by the NCD Governor on the Talk-back Show on Monday, that “Lae-based Engineers and DoW should rise up to the occasion and provide sound professional advice on the matter – Lae Roads is a NATIONAL ISSUE.”
Here is what I wanted to share:-
1. Previous Efforts by AusAID
AusAID spent a significant amount of Aussie Dollars to fund the reconstructions of the Industrial Roads, those East and West of Milford Haven and including Milford Haven. It was the first time for a donor agency to fund roads within a city or town and I do not think that will ever happen again; not in this current climate anyway. And we have heard from the Aussie High Commissioner recently when announcing financial support for the social sector in Morobe that it will not fund the road works. Now why would AusAID not want to fund the Lae City Roads again? The answer is simple; at the completion of project back in 2001, AusAID funded a comprehensive study that recommended two important elements for Lae City Council and the Morobe Provincial Administration to implement before any future funding can be considered and these were:-
a. Construct Various Drainage Outfalls
From the previous works, 2 drainage outfalls were constructed and these were (i) Bumbu A (near the main wharf, old Ai Gris Market) and (ii) Marsina (adjacent to the Cement factory). The Didymans Creek (running down the old airfield) was also lined. Now the only reason why extensive work was done to improve the Didymans Creek was to cater for future drainage to feed into it. A purposely constructed spillway was build for overflows from the Raun Wara. There are 7 other drainage outfalls that needs construction and unless this is done, run-offs from our roads will have no facility to assist in the discharge. So basically, all these water and those from the buildings/houses just simply flow around until they eventually seep into the ground, hence the reason why the soil under us is water-logged.
b. Provide continuous funding for Routine Maintenance
We have seen the result of negligence and it is not going to help us if we do not cater for routine maintenance year-in year-out. The roads previously reconstructed are beginning to fall apart right before our eyes and we have not even made any attempt to repair them. Those small cracks have widened and potholes have emerged simply because we have not attended to them while they are still small. Culverts are blocked and during heavy rain, they overflow onto the road and that contributes to rapid pavement deterioration.
2. Implementing Agency
The Implementing Agency for the works is liable for every activity that is being carried out. In the first phase of works funded by AusAID, LCC and DoW were joint partners in implementing the project. Design works were done by Ove Arup and was checked and approved by DoW in consultation with LCC, but after vigorous checks and certifications. Department of Finance is now the Implementing Agency for this current works (see the project sign boards) and it is its responsibility to ensure all the works including designs are done according to standards and specifications. DoW and LCC are not responsible in any way. DoF appointed NME International as its consultants and by that it may mean that it has delegated/off loaded its responsibilities to the consultant. The consultant is now totally responsible for everything that takes place; DoF is not technically qualified so it will depend entirely on the consultant to run the show, as to speak.
The City Manager did put out 2 paid advertisements in the daily papers requesting some coordination from all parties and particularly contractors in order to (i) maximise benefits and (ii) minimise disruption to traffic during road closures. I do not think this took place given the chaotic display we face every day. It would be unfair to point the finger at LCC for lack of traffic control.
3. Concrete Roads
I am not against concrete roads, and I believe they are great. But I do not believe it is the solution for our roads here in Lae. We have not exhausted the other methods and importantly, we do not have specifications for concrete roads here in PNG, let alone specification for maintenance of concrete roads. The K100m allocation is a lot of money and given the fact that Lae has just over 140km of road length, this money if applied through approved processes using conventional and improved designs, can transform close of 50% of these roads.
That concrete section done earlier in front of Admin compound is going, and falling apart, after what 5 years! Take a drive down there and take a closer look, there are cracks everywhere and that is not a good sign. Furthermore, surface run-offs from the newly constructed section done by Dekenai will flow down and water will seep into those cracks in the concrete and sooner or later, there will be differential settlement between the individual concrete sections and that would be catastrophic; it is already happening – try driving at over 60kph and you will feel the undulations. The surface texture is also fading and like I said before, maintenance is near difficult.
a. The New Works
I have observed a number of faults in the current works. Firstly, all the designs are different and each contractor has its own. The consultant was supposed to do the design and pass it onto the contractor, instead the contractors did the design and requests approval from the consultant. This is a terrible joke! The consultant is paid for doing absolutely f@#$!!-all (pardon my French). Secondly, I do not believe any traffic survey/count was done on the sections of the roads before the contractors started their works. How do the contractors know the volume and type of traffic that uses the road? Assumptions again, that is bad, very bad. Roads are designed to carry axial loadings and that can only be calculated from traffic counts. Thirdly, we are removing the pavement material by digging down onto the subgrade and after that we are replacing with concrete. If we are going to build concrete, it would be wise to build on solid foundations and not on weaker material. Take a drive around and you will see what I mean, and worse still, the beddings were not sufficiently compacted – we are building on lose materials too!
b. Traffic Management
Apart from what I said during the workshop, that is planning and classification of roads to match traffic, traffic management during construction is also an essential element especially when we are working in town where there is significant volume of traffic. Without this, there will always be chaos and I do not need to comment any more on this. But there are two very critical things we failed to take into account;-
i. Maintenance/Repair of Detours
There is no consideration at all in maintaining those roads that are being used as detours. Take for example, the Kwila Road. Before the work commenced on the round-abouts on Markham Road and now the Milford Haven, it was a perfectly good road. Now it is riddled with potholes and it is getting worse by the minute. At the end, we will need to reconstruct it and I do not see this in the plan for future works. The cost to maintain detours should be part and parcel of the contracts. And like I said before, since there are a number of contracts that are concurrent, then it is the Implementing Agency’s responsibility to fund and manage traffic control separately.
ii. Diversion of Traffic
What I fail to understand is that why are we reconstructing all the roads at the same time? We are shooting ourselves in the foot! This is causing havoc and heavy vehicles are being forced to use the residential roads and that is poor traffic management, if ever there was one. Lae is an industrial city and special consideration should always be given to heavy traffic. It is absolutely mind-blogging to see semi-trailers crawling bumper-to-bumber on the Kwila Road and Jawani Street.
4. Delays and Associated Costs
I guess no-one has ever thought about this and I have noted comments from the President LCCI that we are willing to put up with all these inconveniences in return for good roads. That is fine, but we must bear in mind that there are costs associated with these inconveniences. This is a real situation; I live at the end of Cassia Crescent and it used to take me 25 minutes before to drop off my children at school and drive to work in the mornings and then the same in the afternoons. Now it takes me 30mins more and I have to drive an additional 5km every day.
When we determine road project viability, two of the most important factors of consideration are traffic numbers and vehicle operating costs. Taking these into account, let me take you back to me every day situation. If I am paid at K5/hr, then everyday it is costing me an extra K5.00. Assuming 20,000 people are affected in the same way every day, then that’s K100,000.00 and say over the duration of the project, which is 12 months, that equates to K24m. In the same way, travelling an additional 10km a day uses about 2 extra litres of diesel and at K3.30/litre, I am forking out an additional K6.60 for fuel every day. Say if 5,000 vehicles do these type of longer trips every day then that equates to K33,000.00 per day and over 12 months, K7.92m. Put the two costs together, the inconvenience alone caused by these works, not withstanding wear-and-tear on the vehicles, amounts to K32m! Now if we are to add these to the amount already committed, it would reach a total of almost K70m for what, 17km of road – you have to scratch your head over this, it is jaw-dropping, eye-raising phenomena.5. Way Forward
Okay, we have come pass the tender/design process (we all know there were no such things), but anyway, construction works have already commenced and we are basically struck with it, for the next 9-12 months. Now that concrete is being applied here on our roads, it would be silly to step down from this class and revert back to the conventional methods (bituminous surfacing). For future works, I would recommend the following and I hope we have learnt from our foolish experience:-
a. Proper Design
Proper and consistent design should be done and issued as part of the tender document including defined Bill of Quantities. Construction of those drainage outfalls must form part of the future works. Specifications for concrete roads including maintenance specifications should be sourced – these must be issued as part of the Tender Document also.
b. Open Tender
In order to get real value for money, future works should be tendered openly. Nothing is too urgent to warrant the use of Certificate of Inexpediencies.
c. Discreet Traffic Management
To counter and minimise the delays and chaos, proper traffic management should be purposely designed and that also includes the strengthening of designated detours.
Brian S Alois, Regional Works Manager for the Northern/Islands Region
If you have any comments to Mr Alois reply to Mr Philemon, please add them at the bottom of the post by scrolling down.
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