For: Saih Rawl-Barik graded road

Annex to: Oman North Graded Road Improvement Project

Muscat 27.01.2012

Document Control Sheet Project Name: Project Number: Document / Report Title: Document / Report Number: Issue Status/Amendment Issue 1 Document reviewed for Public Exhibition Prepared Name: Sasa Kocic Signature: Sasa Kocic Date: 27/01/12 Reviewed Name: Fayel Zarei Signature: FAYEL ZAREI Date: 28/01/12 Signature: Approved Name: Saih Rawl-Barik graded road improvement option appraisal Issue 1 North Graded Road Improvement Project

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1.

Foreword

1.1.1. The purpose of this document is to summarize the work carried out by ONE and RSST with regard to the issues of tackling the road safety issues on the graded road from Saih Rawl to Barik, which was indicated as the priority road for the upgrading into the asphalt road by the on-site engineers and later identified by the TOPSIS method as the priority road for the improvement.

1.1.2. It outlines the advantages and disadvantages of the options considered for the improvement of the road makes recommendations to be brought forward to future decision on the approval of the budget for the upgrading the road into the asphalt road or deciding on the different improvement measures to tackle the safety issues raised.

2.
2.1.

Road Appraisal
Introduction

2.1.1. The Saih Rawl-barik road is the main road between the Saih Rawl and Qarn Alam towards Barik and further oilfields in Qarn Alam cluster in the PDO concession area, predominantly used by the PDO and related contractors for the transport and commuting, with approximately 98 vehicles per hour using this road. The road is 42km long and going through the mostly level terrain.

Figure 1: Road in relation to the PDO Locations

2.1.2. At present the road is a graded road with varying width, and with safety lanes on the most of the road sections. The road is maintained as per the PDO requirements and the budget constraints, but the proper requirement, as pre the standards and directives it is that the whole road should be resheeted two times in a year. Regular re-sheeting is not carried out, but only the work in relation to the most damaged areas. 2.1.3. As part of the review process the roads indicated by the Operation and Engineering teams have been classified and prioritized by the use of TOPSYS and the criteria of number of RTA, price for upgrade, price for the maintenance and the traffic counts. The Saih Rawl-Barik graded road came to be the second highest one in these criteria mentioned previously.

Figure 2:

Priority of the roads by TOPSYS

2.1.4. The RTA data was collected for the previous three years and the analysis of this data has provided the following:
RTA Date 17.01.2012 28.11.2010 04.09.2010 03.04.2010 Type of RTA Rollover Rollover Tip-over Tip-over Main cause Excessive speed Excessive speed Excessive speed Driver error Failure to 18.10.2009 Collision obey the posted STOP sign factors Road Surface: difference in friction factors Road Surface: difference in friction factors Road Surface: difference in friction factors Road layout: the layout gives a false impression of the bend instead of the T junction Contributory factor Road Surface: difference in friction

The evidences collected from the RTA that happened on this road indicate that the road surface and the road layout play a significant part as the main contributory factors in all of the RTA that have happened. common to all of this RTA-s. The main problem is indicated in the following picture, and it represents the issue that is

Figure 3:

Typical road surface composition for the Fahud-Qarn Alam graded road

The road surface cannot be compacted enough to provide a same friction on all of the wheels of the vehicle, therefore it has the same effect as the water ponds on the asphalted roads, creating the difficulty for the driver to keep his vehicle in line, and encouraging the road users to try to drive on the whole carriageway, instead of driving only on their side of the road. Also, the dispersion of these RTA shows that intervention on one location would not be sufficient, considering that the RTA locations are dispersed along the whole road. The measure of the re-grading or re-sheeting the road would also require a lot of work and it would also affect the usage of this road, considering that the re-sheeting of the graded road uses water etc., therefore also creating the hazard of creating a wet and muddy road surface while trying to improve the condition of the road surface itself.

3.

Conclusion
The Saih Rawl-Barik graded road should be upgraded into the asphalt road considering the traffic volumes, cost for the maintenance and the fact that most of the RTA-s that happened on a straight road, almost level terrain and the soft measures of the driver training and the traffic signs placement will not be sufficient.