Monday, December 04, 2017

 

SOME REASONS WHY ROAD PROJECTS ENDURE DELAYS AND EXTENSIONS IN THE SOUTHEASTERN PART OF LIBERIA

This paper was initiated from a personal in-depth analysis of the close association with laterite road works in the southeastern part of Liberia since 1986. It will be prudent if my conclusive opinion could actually be scientifically researched and studied, to validate or to refute, so that by the end of the day, there should be a win-win solution for all, most especially for the people of the project area who are the direct beneficiaries of all developmental projects.

The age old narrative that in Liberia, the rainy season runs from May to October does not hold true anymore from the geographical boundary of the City of Harper, Maryland County through the rugged landscape to the City of Fish Town, River Gee County; however, if that was the case in the past prior to the Global Warming phenomenon, it definitely has changed and that narrative needs to be altered.

There are four contributing factors that have generated such opinion:
  1. The insitu materials along the project road (laterite, fine sand, sandy clay, mud, inland swamps, etc.);
    • Laterite and the other insitu materials do not perform well under intense precipitation when disturbed; moreover, borrowed materials are observed to contain high water content than the required optimal moisture and require additional workability when placed on the road bed for use.
  2. The intense daily rainfall;
    • Intense rainfall and limited dry days make it difficult to work continuously in order to keep up with the work schedule and achieve the various targeted milestones.
  3. The Procurement Mode - The total volume of work to be completed within the given project time frame;
    • Procurement for civil works in such harsh territory should be minimal in terms of linear configuration, number of water crossing structures and conduits for future utilities.  The total length of any proposed road section must not exceed twenty (25) miles or forty (40) kilometers whilst the duration should be thirty-six (36) months including twelve (12) months of defeats liability.
  4. The access road to the project site – The distance from the City of Monrovia to the City of Harper is between 632 km by way of the Buchanan-Greenville Highway and 765 km by way of the Ganta-Zwedru Highway. The route more favorably used by most Contractors is the Ganta-Zwedru Highway. On this section of the Ganta-Zwedru Highway, only 262 km section is paved and the remaining 503 km section of the road is unpaved and barely passable during the rainy season.
    • Due to the condition of the road during the rainy season, construction supplies and materials are difficult to be transported to the site for use, which cause tremendous lack of logistics.

It is my honest opinion that if the four contributing factors were considered, in the absence of the existing mode of operation in the implementation of road construction in the southeastern part of Liberia, the perpetual requests for multiple extensions will be a thing of the past and civil work projects will be completed as planned and a win-win for all will be observed and celebrated.
In addition to the above, various options of the mode of construction could be considered; such as, types of pavements – flexible versus rigid pavement including types of protections during construction.

It is of my opinion that to continue the status quo of road construction as implemented to date in the southeast, the following scenarios could be the genesis to initiate such change:
  •        The final cost of the project could mushroom exponentially;
  •        The original duration could be extended several times;
  •        The Contract could be terminated;
  •       The Contractor could abandon the project;
  •       Absolutely no work schedule could ever be followed to achieve targeted milestones.

With the constant daily rainfall that have overwhelmed the project area of the Fish Town Harper Road Project, which have rendered the revised work scheduled worthless; in my mind, demonstrates the findings that instead of having a construction season of six (6) months or 180 calendar days, the realistic construction season in that part of Liberia should actually be three (3) months or 90 calendar days.

In conclusion of this analysis of the reason why there is a considerably likelihood for delays and extensions of projects implemented in the southeastern part of Liberia, I believe I have stated the case that should intrigue any enlightened mind to further investigate the situation and develop a workable solution so as to address the stress and hardship of managing any project in that part of the Country to bring relief to the inhabitants of that scenic surrounding.

Please find below Historical Rainfall Data that covered the period starting from 1927 to 1946 collated by Reconnaissance; from January 2003 to April 2010 collated by BTNED, the Consultant who did the original design for the Rehabilitation of the Fish Town Harper Road and the most recent Rainfall Data collected by the present Consultant, Comptran.



 Rainfall Data compiled and used by BTNED


YEAR (mm)
MONTHLY
MONTH
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
AVE
JANUARY
8
19
79
3
0
0
9
29
193
38
FEBRUARY
31
32
37
59
63
12
11
33
286
63
MARCH
5
16
37
50
51
73
13
209
361
91
APRIL
199
335
224
91
111
64
64
138
333
173
MAY
305
230
155
61
163
79
81

409
185
JUNE
771
579
349
231
320
223
211

357
380
JULY
1345
692
393
493
630
334
365

123
547
AUGUST
626
539
464
415
430
388
446

310
452
SEPTEMBER
690
147
508
297
285
417
490

139
372
OCTOBER
239
460
193
142
298
151
502

511
312
NOVEMBER
220
167
69
28
92
65
296

193
141
DECEMEBER
61
80
23
1
50
43
1


37
TOTAL(ANNUAL)
4500
3296
2531
1871
2493
1849
2489
409
3215
2,517
ANNUAL(MONTHLY AVERAGE)
375
275
211
156
208
154
207
102
292
229

  

Weather Record for the Month of October 2017
Comptran's Monthly Report : Page 117 of 149
Date
Rainfall (mm)
Comments
Gauge 1
1
0.00
Sunny
2
24.30
Rainy
3
0.00
Cloudy
4
0.00
Cloudy
5
23.00
Rainy
6
45.50
Rainy
7
39.00
Rainy
8
26.00
Rainy
9
53.00
Rainy
10
71.00
Rainy
11
40.50
Rainy
12
0.00
Cloudy
13
0.00
Cloudy
14
0.00
Cloudy
15
2.20
Slight Showers
16
0.00
Cloudy
17
0.00
Cloudy
18
0.00
Cloudy
19
2.70
Slight Showers
20
0.00
Cloudy
21
0.00
Sunny
22
0.00
Sunny
23
0.00
Sunny
24
0.00
Sunny
25
0.00
Cloudy
26
21.00
Rainy
27
15.00
Rainy
28
12.50
Rainy
29
1.00
Slight Showers
30
0.00
Cloudy
31
2.50
Rainy
Rainiest Day Rainfall
71 mm

Total Rainfall
379.20

Avg. Rainfall
25.28





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