The Analysis of Quality Control Between Feeders Road and Ghana High Ways
CHAPTER ONE
Objective of the study
The objectives of the study are;
- To find out the different between quality control of feeders road and Ghana high way
- To find out the cost of maintenance of road feeder and highway in Feeders road
- To find the effect of quality control on roads in Feeders road
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
The relevant pieces of information by various sources of authorities reviewed for the purpose of this study were organized in this chapter. The areas reviewed included definition of road construction, road design and maintenance and high way construction.
Conceptual Review
The concept of Construction
Depending on the context in which the term is used, there are numerous definitions for the term “construction.” The contexts span the fields of engineering, medicine, literature, and geometry. However, the construction literature is limited to the engineering context for the purposes of this study.
Construction is viewed by Torbett et al. (2001) as the actual act of putting engineers’ or architects’ concepts into practice. It has been noted that this physical act is crucial to the growth of cities, communities, residences, and industry. According to Torbett et al. (2001), the provision of physical buildings, structures, and industries is one way that construction can be used to promote environmental development. From an engineering/technological standpoint, Whelton, Ballard, and Tommelein (2002) see construction as a branch of production that involves the erection and reconstruction of various kinds of buildings and structures. These constructions were either built for personal or societal benefit, or for the development of infrastructure (Whelton, Ballard and Tommelein, 2002). Infrastructure development is divided into two main areas by Giang and Pheng (2011): social and economic. Investments in new factories, machinery, equipment, and materials are examples of investments in social infrastructure development, whereas investments in roads, train lines, power, and communication are examples of investments in economic infrastructure development. Although this study is focused on economic and infrastructure development, both social and economic advancements raise a country’s physical capital stock, increasing its level of national output (Giang and Pheng, 2011). The actualization and realization of short- and long-term rural and urban development programs depend heavily on construction (Koskela, 2000; Whelton, Ballard and Tommelein, 2002). According to these authors, the importance of construction is responsible for the advancement of industry, the rise in citizen living conditions, and the preservation, reorganization, and restoration of the environment (Koskela, 2000; Whelton, Ballard and Tommelein, 2002). Construction differs from other industries in that the product (as a result of the production process) always has a fixed location, the active assets of the organization, such as labor, equipment, and machinery, are mobile, and the production cycle is relatively lengthy, lasting anywhere from a few months to several years.
Major examples of engineering constructions include commercial structures including vessels, dams, and power plants, as well as industrial facilities, public buildings and structures, roads, and bridges (Whelton, Ballard and Tommelein, 2002). Based on the various perspectives discussed above, this research defines construction as the production branch that entails the physical act and art of turning concepts into actual, tangible structures. Construction, however, cannot be performed as a lone function because it is surrounded by several socioeconomic interests, including stakeholders, the physical environment, the location, and the resources that are accessible.
The Construction industry
Economic development affects the types of construction projects in any economy, so there is a strong relationship between it and the construction business (Moavenzadeh and Rossow, 1975; Hull, 2009). This is demonstrated by the nature of the ensuing construction boom in nations like China and the United Arab Emirates, whose economies are powered by industrial exports and oil, respectively. For instance, plans for new developments and urban revitalization have fueled the building industry in China (Oluwakiyesi, 2011). Oluwakiyesi (2011) claims that China had a significant increase in building as a percentage of GDP from 3.8% to 6.6% between 1978 and 1999. In support of the enormous growth in China’s GDP with regard to building, the World Bank (2010) notes that the sector contributes 13% of China’s GDP. Similar to this, the UKCG (2022) report reaffirms the importance of the construction industry to economic expansion. According to the research, construction contributes significantly to UK GDP (7.4% in 2011), and every £1 spent on construction production results in £2.84 worth of additional economic activity, which raises GDP. Over 3.1 million people are employed by the construction industry in the UK, which has about 350000 enterprises and accounts for 10.5% of all employment in the country, despite experiencing the greatest rate of layoffs during the 2008–2009 recession (UKCG, 2022).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter looks at the methodology employed by the researcher for the study which included the administration of questionnaires to target respondents namely; Feeders road in the Volta Region. The study was specifically undertaken by way of inquiries and interviews. The questionnaire was self-administered and the secondary data for the research was the data gained on unpublished research dissertations, print media and internet search engine including websites on the topic of interest of the study which is the assessment of the administrative process in the management of maintenance project execution on trunk roads. By methodology, Buami (2006) refers to it as the modes that clarify, explain and assist in the understanding of the research approach, research design methods of analysis.
Population and Sampling Technique
The population of study is made up of all members of staff of Feeders road in Volta Region. The sample size of the study is thirty (30) employees within the various divisions of Feeders road, Volta Region in connection with maintenance project execution. The size of the sample was based on considerations that, not all the staff members even understand the processes involved in the execution of maintenance projects. Moreover, due to time constraints, it seemed most suitable to have a sample size that could be managed by the researcher considering the time allotted to the researcher and that could at the same time be a good representation for the purposes of the study.
Sampling for this research was drawn from the Volta Regional office of the Feeders road. A judgmental sampling technique was used to select staff members who play various roles in managing project execution on roads network. Thirty (30) employees were selected to form the sampling frame. The reason for using a judgmental sampling technique is that not all the staff members of the company are involved in managing project execution on roads network and thus may not provide responses that may meet the objectives of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
Introduction
The study employed simple descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and percentages to compare some of the measured parameters such as demographic data, responses to issues etc. The analysis was performed around the objectives for this study; however, other relevant details were added for better presentation of findings. Tables and graphs were used with their appropriate figures and wordings for clarity in presentation.
Analysis of Findings
The data was analyzed giving thought to the main research question: to assess the administrative process in the management of maintenance project execution on trunk roads. Each assessment was looked at individually and descriptive statistics were computed for each.
Findings from Feeders road Employees
A total number of thirty (30) employees of the Feeders road in the Volta region responsible for managing maintenance of project execution on roads were selected to provide answers to the structured questionnaire.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary of findings
The research study commenced with the business profile of Feeders road , and with regards to answering the key questions identified for the exercise, the findings of this research will have wide support for effective maintenance project execution and to make recommendation on how administrative processes can be managed in maintenance project execution on roads nationwide.
In Feeders road roads have been the backbone of passenger and freight transport since independence. Since then, road networks have been growing rapidly. Several years ago the rate of expansion started to slow down and the road networks began to age fast (Addo, 2000). Scarce resources, especially in the 80‘s, have contributed to an ever-decreasing amount of money allocated to road maintenance. Towards the end of the decade several countries in Africa spent less than 20% of the amounts necessary to maintain their road networks in adequate conditions (Ankrah, 2000).
In the early 90‘s funding levels for the road sector slightly improved, but funds were and still are mainly used for road rehabilitation and only a little is being spent for the more cost effective routine and periodic maintenance activities (Addo, 2000). Nowadays, to raise funds for road rehabilitation is much easier than for road maintenance, due to the fact that loans to finance rehabilitation are still readily available from international lending agencies, while funding for road maintenance is subject to the political debate in parliament and is normally losing ground to other politically more attractive issues. Generally between 2% and 3% of the new investment value of the road network is required for routine and periodic maintenance alone according to. Unfortunately, even today, regions in Feeders road are spending normally between 20% and 50% of the funding required for adequate road maintenance only. In addition, these already insufficient funds often are being used inefficiently in a poor state. Normally, only 1/3 of the paved main road network is in good, 1/3 in regular and 1/3 in poor condition. Unpaved roads are in even worse shape. Road conditions naturally vary from country to country. These appalling figures were true 10 years ago and still hold true today, despite the huge amounts poured into road rehabilitation during recent years. Past efforts to improve the level of financing for road maintenance have either failed or were not sustained. Equally unsuccessful were most of the countless efforts, mainly financed by multilateral or bilateral agencies, to improve the performance of the public road administrations in the region The Government realized that poor road infrastructure was a major constraint to economic growth and social development and thus have identified the maintenance of the road network as a development priority (Addo, 2000).
Findings of data analysis obtained from the research outlines the following:
- Majority of respondents representing 50% indicated that they were directly involved and responsible for the operational and control of the maintenance works in the Road
- Total respondents representing 100% indicated that they organise periodic road maintenance by ensuring that well-defined system of rules, standard operating procedures and norms are
- 66% of total respondents agreed that the main process which is used to execute periodic road maintenance was site inspection / handing over site, site / technical meetings, quantity and quality control and time/cost
- 7% and 23.3% of respondents respectively indicated that the practise of the organization having a single plan of action to guide managers and workers as well as the practise of the department adhering to job specialization and the division of labour in the execution of road maintenance were the practices used in the management of periodic maintenance of road.
- 3% of employees interviewed said they agreed to the question of whether arrangement of departmental positions maximizes efficiency and provides employees with satisfying career opportunities at Feeders road.
- 3% mentioned No time and Cost limits stated as the main issues & challenges affecting the administrative process in the management of maintenance project execution on roads.
- 60% of sampled respondents said the impact of quality on the road network was the main challenge confronting Feeders road in the management of maintenance project execution on roads.
- 4% of total respondents indicated the role of ensuring maintenance of all National, Inter Regional and Regional roads in the network.
The findings imply that the feeder roads to a large extent, follow some bureaucratic process as a public organisation in the management of maintenance projects. However, most of the personnel directly involved in the management of maintenance projects are of the view that projects are executed without fixed completion dates and contract sums which is unusual. Probably, the long delays experienced in execution of maintenance projects coupled with extension of time and their attendant cost may justify their perception and GHA much work to change that perception.
CONCLUSIONS
Ghana government have been addressing the low density and management of maintenance project execution on trunk roads and enhancing nationwide road networks. Institutional reform since the mid-1990s has progressed well, with a remarkable consensus on the content. Most countries have second-generation road funds supported by fuel levies, and many others have autonomous road agencies (Frost, 2001). Specialist maintenance management agencies have been established, and new forms of contract-based maintenance are being introduced. Although important funding gaps remain, results are discernible.
On average, 80 percent of the main road network is in good or fair condition, and the current value of the national road networks is at least 70 percent of their potential. The limited time series available also suggests that a number of regions have improved road conditions over time. Despite this progress, the reform agenda is incomplete. In many cases, fuel levies have been set too low to be effective, and road funds and agencies do not always meet all good practice design criteria. Modern contracting and contract management methods are far from universal. Furthermore, while policy makers‘ attention has focused on the institutions and financial flows for the interurban roads, other challenges such as poor records of management of maintenance project execution on roads have surfaced that will require different types of solutions.
First, the reforms to the interurban road network have affected rural roads much less. Even though agriculture is viewed as an engine of growth, only one-third of rural inhabitants live within 2 kilometers of an all-season road.. The rural environment presents particular institutional challenges for road maintenance. Second, surface transportation is about more than good roads. Africa continues to be handicapped by very high road freight tariffs, driven primarily by high profit margins rather than high costs (or defective roads).
RECOMMENDATIONS
The rehabilitation of the road network, and the build up of institutional, financial and technical capacity for its continued maintenance, are among the most critical challenges confronting transport planners and policy makers in Africa. In a bid to meet burgeoning developmental needs in the 1960s and 1970s, many African countries expended considerable sums to expand their road networks. At the same time the resource base for maintaining existing and newly created road assets was squeezed and the performance of the network failed to match expectations
In order for effective management of maintenance project execution on roads, most countries relied on regular recurrent budget funding through the treasury to finance maintenance – the budgeted amounts normally fell well short of requirements and what had been budgeted was rarely fully allocated. Some countries sought to set up Road Funds (RFs) (referred to as the ―first generation” road funds) usually as a line item in the national budget. This represented a type of―earmarking‖ of government revenues to finance a service, administered and largely delivered by government departments and allocated according to more or less pre-defined priorities. The RFsgenerally fell well short of their goals as manifested in poor governance (diversion and inappropriate usage of funds, lack of auditing), poor collection and disbursement and inadequate contribution for yearly maintenance of the country’s road network
Feeders road could put in place a policy guideline that:
- Ensures that for future projects of large magnitude, the Feeders road should ensure that construction works are executed on contract basis.
- Feeders road should ensure that road contractors rectify the defects observed during the field inspection of the completed project.
- Management members of Volta Regional Office of feeders road should be sensitized on the need to have enough information about periodic maintenance project
- The Volta region‘s trunk road network comprises strategic trading corridors linking deep-sea ports to economic hinterlands. These corridors, which carry about GHS50 billion of trade a year, include no more than 10,000 kilometres of road. The concept of an intraregional trunk network remains a distant reality because of missing links and poor maintenance on key segments. Between 60,000 and 100,000 kilometres of road are required to provide such intracontinental connectivity. Therefore Feeders road should ensure efficient assessment of the administrative process in the management of maintenance project execution on trunk roads.
- This finding clearly shows that timely attention to maintenance reduces the expenditure needed to sustain the road system in the long term (Harral and Faiz 1988).
- Good governance is thus critical for safeguarding road quality through good budget finance and a professionally competent public sector implementation agency. Countries with road funds and high fuel levies are substantially more successful at raising finance that translates into higher road maintenance expenditures. Countries with road funds and quasi independent road agencies show substantially higher quality on main road networks.
- Based on these findings, it is recommended that there should be road funds and high fuel levies which would translate into higher road maintenance expenditures. Hence, Feeders road should be properly educated on efficient road funds management and maintenance efforts.
Some of the key lessons emerging from this study are:
- Setting up dedicated financing arrangements is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to ensure that a sustainable and stable basis of road maintenance is established which translates to improved service delivery. It is equally necessary to ensure that: (i) commitment exists at all levels to make commercialized road management work; (ii) aggregate resources are sufficient to cover all parts of the road network; (iii) road user fees are based on the maintenance ―needs‖ of the road network; (iv) the road boards are appropriately constructed to ensure equitable representation of user interests; (v) a clear allocation of responsibilities exists between the road funds administration and road agencies; and (viii) the road agencies have the capacity to carry out road maintenance works efficiently and effectively.
- Maintenance of main and urban road network is on a (modestly) improving trend even given the aforementioned That is not true for the rural network whose quality continues to deteriorate. This is partly a reflection of an inadequate planning and programming framework and partly a lack of capacity in the rural areas. Years of neglect have limited the capacity of the road agencies to carry out maintenance works, a deficiency most apparent in rural and feeder road agencies. Addressing this issue would benefit from dissemination of appropriate technology practice as well as alternate approaches to strengthen local construction industry that is relevant to the rural road environment.
REFERENCES
- Addo, S.T (2000): ―The Role of Transport in the Socio-economic development of developing countries: a Ghanaian Example‖ The Journal of Tropical Geography, Singapore, Vol 48 pp. 1-8
- Ankrah, F.P (2000): The Development of Road Transport in Ghana as a Spatio-Tempral Process: A Case Study of the Eastern Region presented to the Department of Geography and Resource Development, Univ. of Ghana, Unpublished MPhil Thesis.
- Ashong (2004). “The Development of Labour-Based Road Programme involving the Private Sector : The Ghana Experience” 5th ASIST Regional Seminar for Labour-based Practitioners.
- Liautaud B, (2001). Maintaining Roads. The Experience with Output-Based Contracts in Argentina. The World Bank, Washington, D.C.
- Boarnet, M.G (2005): Transportation Infrastructure, Economic Productivity. And Geographic Scale: Aggregate Growth versus Spatial Redistribution. Working Paper No. 225, Univ of California Transportation Center, Berkeley, USA.
- Brushett, S. and Kumar A, (2001). ―Improving road management and financing: A review of some recent experience of policy reforms in Africa‖, Proceedings of the First Road Transportation Technology Conference in Africa, Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania, pp. 288- 304.