THE FUTURE OF LOW COST

SEALING IN UGANDA
STAKEHOLDERS AND
SENSITIZATION WORKSHOP
RTI COMPONENT

7th 8th July, 2016

ENG. STEPHEN KITONSA
ASST. COMMISSIONER/DISTRICT AND COMMUNITY
ACCESS ROADS

Definitions

Low Cost Sealing is the appropriate sealing

of low volume roads while optimizing the
use

of

locally

available

materials

and

labour;

Low Volume Roads are defined as roads

carrying less than 300 vehicles per day and
with less than 1 Million Equivalent Standard
Axles

(MESAs);

preeminence.

the

latter

taking

Problem Statement

Over 90% of Ugandas road network is unpaved;

Gravel, the material used both for pavement layers and
surfacing of unpaved roads, is getting depleted;
As a result haulage distances for gravel are getting
longer with time, resulting in increased costs of gravel
associated road interventions;
With the countrys increasing population, the demand
and hence competition for land for various purposes has
significantly increased, leading to rapid appreciation of
value of land;
Accordingly pressure for gravel for the road works is
getting very high and obtaining the required quantities
is becoming unsustainable; let alone the significant
environmental degradation.

Problem Statement

Due to several factors including high intensity

rainfall and traffic levels that are continuously rising,
re-sealing intervals for gravel roads are becoming
shorter(2-3years)as time goes on;
The above scenario has culminated in increased life
cycle road maintenance costs for these gravel roads;
Funding to maintain these roads using the
(re)gravelling strategy of intervention is proving
unsustainable;
Option would be to upgrade the gravel roads to
paved standard but the unit cost of doing this
conventionally has gone very high.

Background

As a result of the above, Government through its Ministry of

Works and Transport decided to explore other possibilities of
addressing what had apparently become an un-sustainable way
of maintaining gravel roads;
About 10 years ago the Ministry decided to adopt the Low Cost
Sealing (LCS) of Low Volume Roads (LVRs) approach, one that
other countries particularly in the SADC region were using;
The introduction of the approach was one of the key aspects
that was included in the U-growth project that commenced in
2010 and was to run in the Teso, Lango and Acholi sub-regions;
The Rural Transport Infrastructure(RTI )was one of the
components of the project and it comprised of 3 subcomponents, viz. DUCAR (MoWT Hqtrs), DLGs and MELTC. All
these were to draw synergies from one another;

Background

The design strategy of the project was that training of key

players in the implementation of LCS would be carried out
by MELTC. Two main categories comprising construction
firms(private sector) and the personnel from Engineering
Departments (public sector) but also some MoWT staff;
After
classroom
theoretical
and
field
practical
demonstrations each firm would be required to undertake
a trial contract in one of the districts;
To date 25No. Firms were awarded trial contracts. 19 No.
successfully completed covering 17.0Km, and these have
been bidding/been awarded main contracts in the districts
where so far 46 Km have been sealed using LCS approach;

Background

During the planning, design, execution and supervision

of both the trial and main contracts the key players
experienced a number of challenges;
On the whole, however the Low Cost Sealing approach
has proved viable;
Accordingly in the National Development Plan (NDP-II)
1,000 Km are to be sealed using the LCS approach;
This workshop was therefore organized for the key
stakeholders to review and deliberate on the
challenges and pertinent issues, and subsequently
make recommendations that would enable proper
planning of the roll out of LCS to achieve this NDP-II
target.

Performance

So far, the key achievements of the RTI Component

include:

700 Km gravel roads constructed;

50 small road structures constructed;
17 Km sealed using LCS under trial contracts;
46 Km sealed using LCS under main contracts awarded by districts.

In the trial contracts 4 seal options were used; viz single

surface dressing with sand capping, otta seal, pre-mix
and sand seal;
All seals under the trial contracts have performed
satisfactorily apart from the sand seals that have largely
tended to wear away quite fast;
For the main contracts the most popular seal has been
the single surface dressing.

Challenges
The key challenges encountered included the
following:
Difficulties
by contractors to secure Advance
Payment Guarantees (and not Insurance Bonds) as
banks required collaterals which some of the
contractors could not readily avail;
Lack of funds to commence works was the single
most
significant
factor
that
caused
late
commencement of works;
Shortage of Pneumatic Tyred Rollers (PTRs) best
suited for rolling the seals, which posed a problem
in that several contractors had to reschedule their
works in a number of instances;

Challenges contd
Where bitumen required heating, for instance
cutbacks used for priming (MC 30) and MC
3000 for the otta seals contractors found it
difficult to secure bitumen distributors within
the project areas;
Further MC-3000 was not readily available, with
suppliers claiming manufacturers were not
enthusiastic about producing it citing safety and
health concerns by users;
Securing the correct size of hand crushed
aggregates particularly for surface dressing was
difficult;

Challenges contd

Most of the sand available in the subregions

was

much

finer

than

that

recommended for use in sand seals;

Insufficient

quantities

of

aggregates

at

peak demand. However this is attributed to

contractors not having made orders for
such materials early enough;

Challenges contd

Lack of field testing equipment meant contractors

had a challenge of ascertaining for instance whether
the

required

OMC

had

been

achieved

during

construction to enable attainment of stipulated

densities (MDDs).

For

compaction

of

the

road

pavement

difficulties

encountered

by

the

accessing

appropriate

equipment

obtained, hire costs were very high.

layers,

contractors
and

in

where

Lessons learnt

Need to allow sufficient contract duration; 8

months for 1.0 km length of trial road section;
Need to have clause in the contract to
verify/ascertain aggregate quality before sealing
activities. This is due to the prohibitive cost to the
contractor should removal of aggregate be the
option in case its specifications are inadequate;
Need to carefully check the availability of
materials in regions where trials/constructions are
to be carried out; with their attendant costs for
proper estimates.

Lessons contd

Need to ensure particularly for otta seal that

rolling is done for sufficiently long periods to
allow bitumen to come up;
Adherence to mix design for premix so as to
make a dense asphalt concrete with minimal
voids to avoid moisture ingress;
For sand seals, where sand is to be applied in
layers particular attention needs to be paid to
ensure previous layer is well cured, remaining
loose sand particles swept off before applying
bitumen for subsequent layers.

Observations
I.

II.

The low cost practical training exercises were

very useful in enhancing the knowledge and skills
of not only contractor staff but as well that of the
district personnel and MELTC staff in as far as
implementing low cost sealing works is
concerned; and
The experience has equipped contractors to
effectively participate in the rollout of the
technology as already evidenced by a number of
them
satisfactorily
carrying out standard
contracts in the districts. Other contractors to be
trained should also go through the same.

Recommendations

For Otta seals, there is need to further

investigate prospects of using bitumen
emulsions to take advantage of ability to
apply a thinner layer of asphalt concrete
material than could be for practical reasons
be applied if treated as a pre-mix; and also
avoid long periods of rolling that would be
required in case cutback binder is used. This
would as well ensure that all applied
aggregates are held resulting into a thicker
seal.

Recommendations contd

For sand seals, better to apply more than one

layer but application needs to be split at each
stage ensuring that that sand is swept off prior to
application of subsequent layers of bitumen.
If single size aggregates are required for the
surface dressing and in
bid to promote
employment creation, either well manufactured
sieves should be availed to stone crushers or
consideration made to avail some hand crushing
machines. From an ILO study, it was found that
manually crushing to a less than 20 mm becomes
uneconomical requiring some kind of equipment.

Recommendations contd

The above lends support to use of otta seal, where in this,

crushing stones to a maximum size and using all fractions
below this becomes very viable i.e. manually producing
otta seal material is much easier than for a single size
aggregate.
Subsequently of the various seal options, the otta seal is
generally perceived to be the most viable to promote,
considering ease of obtaining aggregate material and
lifecycle costs if proper care is taken while using bitumen
emulsions to avoid sandwich layers; and
Theres need to finance similar trial contracts for
oncoming firms to benefit from the enriching experience
and thus be able to measure up to the task of
undertaking real-life contracts in the field after training.

Conclusions
I.

To facilitate roll out using the private sector there will be need to
provide support in terms of access to financing and to key
equipment like PTRs.

II.

Of the seal options applied, the premix was generally best done.
However, its more expensive than the other three. On the other
hand, the single surface dressing mainly had the challenge of
obtaining single size aggregates by hand crushing, while the
single sand seal was wearing away quite fast. The otta seal
appears to be the most viable to promote in terms of life-cycle
maintenance costs, so long as the aspect of sufficient rolling is
addressed or emulsion is used instead of the cutback; and

III.

On a slightly more strategic level, the prospect of setting up an

emulsion plant in the county should be explored as it would
contribute to further lowering the cost of the sealing works,
noting that bitumen constitutes the main cost of the seal.

Way Forward

Arising from the resolutions at the RTI Workshop of

30 June, LCS should be promoted;
Since LCS can strategically be viewed as a
maintenance strategy, far a start at least 30% of
URF (Uganda to the National Fund) funds could be
dedicated towards LCS;
Government should procure some key appropriate/
intermediate equipment for use in implementing
LCS
More training in LCS should be carried out for the
various cadres involved in implementation of these
works.

Way forward contd

A strategy and plan to roll out LCS needs to be
urgently developed ;
A policy paper needs to be prepared; and
subsequently a cabinet paper should be
prepared.
There should be funding. Ministry of Finance,
Planning and Economic Development (MOFPED)
should make firm commitments as already
indicated in its monitoring report on LCS.
The success of the Rural Transport Infrastructure
(RTI) program is implicative of the uptake of LCS.

Way forward contd

Buying in of potential leaders and technocrats.

More research on Low Cost Sealing needs to be

undertaken;

Further reduction of the cost of LC Seals should be

explored;

When LCS were formulated, predominant use of otta

seal was envisaged. Current challenges with this
option need to be addressed so that this becomes
viable.

Thank you for listening

FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY