Road maintenance costs reduce

Jun 26, 2011

THE cost and time taken to rehabilitate roads is set to reduce significantly as the Uganda National Road Authority (UNRA) adopts new construction technologies.

By Frank Mugabi

THE cost and time taken to rehabilitate roads is set to reduce significantly as the Uganda National Road Authority (UNRA) adopts new construction technologies.

The authority’s eastern regional manager, Godfrey Kaaya Mukasa, said they had introduced the use of the milling machine, which recycles existing road surfaces for reuse in the refurbishment works.

“Previously we have been cutting and throwing away the existing surface. With the milling machine, we do not need to excavate fresh murrum. We shall instead reprocess the available pavement to construct the sub-base,” Mukasa said.

He said the system does not only save time and materials but also helps in environmental conservation because it eliminates mass dumping.

Mukasa was on Thursday briefing journalists on the rehabilitation works on the 58km Kamuli-Jinja road. He said the milling machine had brought down costs to about sh800m per kilometre.

Dan Alinange, the authority’s head of corporate communications at UNRA, said it had been taking them between sh1.2b and sh1.5b per kilometre.

He, however, noted that the fall in costs would vary, depending on the conditions and terrain in the area.

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