Skip to main content

Unganda investing in road maintenance and management

The Ugandan Government is working to improve the country’s infrastructure, with new links planned as well as a new project tackling asset management. Fugro is leading a team on a pioneering project to build a pavement and asset management system for the road network of Kampala in Uganda as part of this focus on infrastructure. The company is working with international asset management specialists from TRL and local Ugandan mapping and GIS specialist Aerophoto Systems Engineering on behalf of the client, Kam
October 8, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Fugro and TRL in the UK are amongst those assisting with road maintenance development in Uganda
The 1073 Ugandan Government is working to improve the country’s infrastructure, with new links planned as well as a new project tackling asset management. 6202 Fugro is leading a team on a pioneering project to build a pavement and asset management system for the road network of Kampala in Uganda as part of this focus on infrastructure. The company is working with international asset management specialists from 777 TRL and local Ugandan mapping and GIS specialist Aerophoto Systems Engineering on behalf of the client, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). Surveys to map and geo-reference the 1,700km road and surface drainage networks, to build a record of highway inventory and to report pavement condition and traffic data are included under a Contract of Roads Infrastructure Inventory & Condition Assessment that spans 14 months. The GIS referenced data collection programme includes an airborne LiDAR and photography survey, and a truck-mounted road condition and asset inventory survey.

Data will be used to populate a fully featured asset management system based on TRL’s iROADS software, which includes predictive maintenance, deterioration modelling and financial forecasting functions. The project team will also work with KCCA to compile manuals of network development, road performance indicators and survey procedures to unify standards and evaluative methods for Kampala’s roads.

The project forms a key element of the strategy of developing local capacity. The pavement management system will provide a vital tool to help highway managers to target and prioritise maintenance work, while raising overall engineering performance in key areas such as road condition and traffic flow. The specialised software and data will deliver robust evidence to support KCCA funding bids to government and external investors.

Meanwhile the US74 million Kampala-Jinja Highway is one of six highways planned for upgrades by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). The new tolled highway will form part of the Trans-African Highway and replace the old route, which does not have sufficient capacity for present traffic volumes. All six of the projects were selected by the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) and these are due for completion by 2020.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Preventive maintenance - preserving pavements
    February 14, 2012
    In the first article of a three-part series on preventive maintenance, Alan S. Kercher, of Kercher Engineering, highlights the value to road agencies of a properly implemented pavement preservation programme For many road agencies, the budget for maintenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction (MR&R) of their roads is focused mainly on the pavements that are in the worst condition. In the short term, this common approach may seem very logical. However, when focused on expensive structural improvements,
  • Software mapping takes on hard-to-tackle air pollution problems
    June 15, 2018
    Software mapping of air pollution along transport corridors is an important weapon for improving air quality, argues Arne Berndt*. Although power plants and factories play a large part in increasing air pollution globally, traffic is now the largest single contributor. Commercial vehicles account for a significant share of traffic around the world, with freight volumes projected to grow 40% by 2050. Yet, despite modern vehicles being more environmentally friendly than earlier models, the sheer volume of th
  • Going Digital helped the Government of Malaysia leverage digital twins to deliver trusted information for better project and asset management.
    March 30, 2020
    In 2014, the government of Malaysia announced a plan to fully develop and upgrade the two-lane trunk road across Malaysia’s largest state, Sarawak, to accelerate socioeconomic growth in East Malaysia.
  • Yotta’s Horizons and Mayrise create a route map of the world
    September 14, 2016
    Simon Topp, director of international business at software developer Yotta, explained the need for having the best possible plan in place. Highways agencies and departments the world over face a raft of complex and difficult challenges when it comes to managing and maintaining their infrastructure assets. In some countries, where natural disasters or extreme weather events are endemic, good asset management will need to be supplemented by risk and resilience planning. In the US, for example, the Feder