Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Labour Based Road Works
Labour Based Road Works
LABOUR-BASED ROADWORKS
Any part of this publication may be reproduced or translated provided that the source and author are fully
acknowledged.
Edition 2005.
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INDEVELOPMENT; Labour-based Road Works
Table of contents:
1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 4
2 Selecting technology for public works..................................................................................... 5
2.1 Relevance of economic studies.......................................................................................... 7
3 Labour-based products ............................................................................................................. 9
3.1 Geometric design............................................................................................................... 9
3.1.1 Roads in hilly terrain..............................................................................................................................9
3.2 Cross drainage ................................................................................................................. 10
3.3 Side Drains ...................................................................................................................... 11
3.3.1 Gabions................................................................................................................................................12
4 Labour-based production technology..................................................................................... 14
4.1 Earthworks....................................................................................................................... 14
4.2 Camber formation............................................................................................................ 18
4.3 Compaction...................................................................................................................... 21
4.4 Soil stabilisation .............................................................................................................. 23
4.5 Concrete technology ........................................................................................................ 24
4.5.1 Concrete Pavements.............................................................................................................................25
4.6 Bituminious surfacing...................................................................................................... 25
4.7 Culverts and Sewer Pipes ................................................................................................ 26
4.8 Maintenance activities ..................................................................................................... 28
4.9 Selection of materials ...................................................................................................... 28
4.10 Tools and equipment .................................................................................................... 28
4.10.1 Machine capacities...............................................................................................................................28
5 Institutional development and organisational strengthening.................................................. 33
5.1 Institutional development ................................................................................................ 33
5.2 Pilot programs/projects.................................................................................................... 34
5.2.1 Inputs ...................................................................................................................................................34
5.2.2 Culture .................................................................................................................................................35
5.2.3 Systems................................................................................................................................................35
5.2.4 Staff .....................................................................................................................................................35
5.2.5 Relationship with the contractors.........................................................................................................35
APPENDIX 1: PRODUCTION NORMS OF LIGHT COMPACTION EQUIPMENT .............. 37
APPENDIX 2: PRODUCTION NORMS EQUIPMENT............................................................. 39
APPENDIX 3: GANGFORMATIONS ........................................................................................ 43
APPENDIX 4: ROADWORKS IN THE HIMALAYAS............................................................. 51
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1 INTRODUCTION
Many manuals for labour-based technology seem to be produced for road
works. However this does not mean that the technology cannot be applied
on any of the other infrastructure works. On the contrary, it is very easy to
apply the technology on irrigation, water supply, sanitation, forestry, soil
conservation, building construction works etc. In fact it is usually already
done, or it is easier to apply than on the road works.
Most building works are highly labour-intensive in nature. Earthworks in
water supply, sanitation and irrigation projects can almost always easily be
carried out with labour-based technology.
In the road sector, the application of labour-based technology is most
challenging. If civil engineers can apply the technology in the road sector,
they will be able to apply in any other infrastructure sector.
The following websites presents practical manuals for road works.
• http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/recon/eiip/asist/asist
-ap/download/tmlbt.pdf
• www.ruralworks.com
• http://www.transport-
links.org/transport_links/filearea/publications/1_816_Labour-
Based%20Construction%20Manual.pdf
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Cost estimating To apply the efficiency rule, cost estimates have to be made. Cost
estimates can be made with various different levels of detail, but three of
them are more frequently used than others.
• Rough estimate
• Indicative estimate
• Detailed estimate
Which one will be used depends mainly on the purpose of the estimate and
required accuracy. For selection of products, mostly rough and indicative
estimates are used. If the difference in costs between different alternatives
is very obvious, a rough estimate would provide the necessary answer.
When it can be expected that the difference is uncertain, it may be even
necessary to produce a detailed estimate. In particular, when such
uncertain differences could cost the government/client considerable amount
of money. Detailed estimates require more information inputs. Thus it may
be even necessary to produce two or more detailed designs in order to
make the final selection. The more expensive the product, the more likely
these situations will occur.
Rough estimate A rough estimate for a building would for example be based on indexes for
the neighbourhood, luxury and quality, area of land and area/ volume of
the building.
Indicative estimate An indicative estimate will breakdown the building in different elements,
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like
M2 floor (type a), floor (type b), inner walls, roof etc and multiply these
figures with the respectively unit costs.
Detailed estimates To prepare a detailed estimate it will be necessary to break down the
construction process and to budget all the required resources, materials,
work force, and equipment.
Product selection The products are designed and selected on basis of three criteria:
1. Terms of reference or schedule of requirements
2. Financial analysis
3. Risk analysis
Both analyses should ideally be made over the total required life of the
product. Note that the required life of the product is usually different from
the expected life of a product. For example bridges usually have a longer
life than required, but the asphalt pavement on the deck has a considerable
shorter life than required and needs to be replaced several times before the
final reconstruction of the bridge.
Cost-benefit analysis Cost-benefit analysis can only be used when it is possible to express the
impacts of the product. A common used technique for cost-benefit analysis
is the calculation of the Net Present Value (NPV). The calculation of the NPV
is one of the discounted cash flow methods. Note that it is necessary to
discount the cash flows.1Most products have different life expectancies after
construction. When comparing products with unequal lifetimes the NPV is
not adequate as a measure. In order to make these products comparable
the uniform annuity series (UAS) can be used. This UAS is defined as the
annuity whose present value equals the NPV.
Cost-benefit analyses are usually only used for the identification and
ranking of the infrastructure asset. It is less common to use this technique
for selecting the production process technologies.
Cost analysis Most often the financial analysis can be limited to cost comparisons. Costs
are all the expenditures made in order to provide the product during the
total required life. Thus it contains, investment (construction costs),
operation costs, maintenance costs and replacement costs (usually the
same as the investment costs). The product with the lowest total costs
during the total required life will be ranked as number one.
Indirect cost In theory governments could take into account indirect costs and tax
1
Discounting is the technique of reducing the nominal (numerical) value of future sums of money to their
present worth.
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returns in their cost analysis. For example assume that a government uses
capital-intensive approaches instead of labour-based technology, because
when comparing the direct cost of construction, labour-based technology
was found to be more expensive. But when the government also provides a
social benefit to the un/underemployed; its total expenditure using capital
intensive methods may be higher than when it would have used labour-
based technology and provided employment to a portion of the un/under
employed. In addition many countries have to import heavy equipment
items and their fuel affecting the foreign exchange and governments
foreign cash reserves negatively. Various studies have proven the positive
macro-economic impacts of labour-based technology over equipment-based
technologies. Additional economic growth leads to additional income (taxes)
for the governments and in theory the cost comparisons could take these
financial benefits into account.
Although the theory is simple there are quite some constraints to adjust the
cost comparisons. To start with, usually civil engineers prepare the cost
comparisons. They do not have economic data and are not trained in this
kind of analysis. Gathering the necessary information is costly and difficult
(if at all possible for the economic growth aspects). But probably more
important, infrastructure providing actors do not receive the additional
benefits or they are not paying for the additional costs. These come and go
from other (government) pockets. Without strict instructions and control on
these instructions, infrastructure-providing agencies will not take into
account these indirect costs or incomes in their cost estimates.
Risk analysis Risk is the change of damage multiplied with the damage. Breakdowns of
some infrastructure products are more likely to occur than other products.
If the damage is very high in financial or social-economic terms, the
project/client may want to select the product with lower change of
breakdown.
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3 LABOUR-BASED PRODUCTS
Passing places The lowest design class with a width of 3.0 (2.5) metres will not allow
passing and overtaking to occur and passing places must be provided. The
increased width at passing places should be at minimum 5.0 metres.
Normally passing places should be located every 300 to 500 metres
depending on the terrain and geometric conditions. The minimum length of
a passing place should be 20 metres.
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mass.
Retaining walls limit the height of the cuts and fills on slopes. They
therefore reduce the area of disturbance of the soil and rock cover and can
alleviate the aesthetic impact of a road in its landscape.
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Flow velocity A velocity of 0.6 to 0.8 m/s is often quoted a minimum that will not result
in heavy siltation and will reduce weed growth. In earth canals, however,
this velocity requires a steep longitudinal bottom slope, which is seldom
possible in flat areas. The maximum permissible velocity should not cause
erosion of the bottom and side slopes. The table below present the
maximum permissible velocity in earth canals.
The side slopes also have a maximum slopes, these are presented in the
following table:
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Longitudinal gradients on all roads should preferable not exceed 12%. If the
longitudinal gradient of an earth or gravel road is higher than 10% it is
advisable to protect the road surface with a protective layer (asphalt,
concrete, bricks or stone pitching). Otherwise it rills will be formed. If the
longitudinal gradient is higher than 7%, the rainwater will not flow from the
road but on the road. It is therefore important to minimise the amount of
water entering the road. Therefore drains, gullies are constructed on the
mountainside to prevent rainwater accessing the road surface. Mountain
drains are also recommendable along rice fields, natural springs and other
moist areas.
One of the considerations during defining the road alignment is avoiding of
falling objects from the mountainside on the road. Often the road will
zigzag and different road segments may be located above or on top of each
other. Note that uphill roads discharge water and other debris. It may be
necessary to divert the water with drains from the uphill road to avoid
disturbances on the downhill segment of the road.
3.3.1 Gabions
This product can be well constructed with labour-based (equipment-
supported) technology. Many web pages provide information about
gabions:
• http://www.gabions.net/
• http://www.maccaferri-usa.com/
• http://www.terraaqua.com/
• http://www.markham.com.pg/Culverts/gabions.htm
• www.fao.org/ag/magazine/9812sp2.htm
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4.1 EARTHWORKS
Earthworks involve the loosening, removal, disposal and handling of
earthen materials in the construction process-excavation of cutting and
construction of embankment.
The principal activities are:
• Excavation which includes levelling, cut to crossfill, U-cut and borrow
excavation
• Loading, hauling and unloading
• Filling, including spreading and compaction
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U-cut The U-cut is a cut, which is roughly U-shaped. The road is cut through a
hillcrest in order to reduce the gradient. If U-cuts are deeper that one-
meter the excavation should be organised in several steps.
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Borrow When sufficient suitable material is not available from the roadway
excavations, additional material must be obtained from sources situated
beyond the site. Borrow area parallel to the road should be drained
wherever possible to ensure that pounded water will not seep through and
weaken the embankment or fill.
Work in Quarries A good quarry is one, which requires the minimum work for the maximum
output. In selecting a quarry the following aspect should be considered:
• Quality of material
• Depth of soil over the wanted material
• Cost of excavation and transport
• Hauling distance
• Availability of access road
The quarry layout should allow the vehicles and carts to enter and leave
without being in each other’s way. A circular traffic flow, requiring only
single lanes is ideal.
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Ditching The materials of the side drains usually can be used to construct the
camber. The camber is nothing more than sloping of the road. Sometimes
additional materials for the camber production need to be transported to
the site. The excavated materials may not be enough or of poor quality.
The set of drawing2 below present a methodology to produce the camber.
Note that precise production of the camber depends on the compaction
methodology, terrace level with regard to original ground level and soil
type.
2
Andersson, Beusch and Miles: Road Maintenance and Regravelling using Labour-Based Methods,
Handbook
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Presented drawings were first published in “Road Maintenance and Regravelling (ROMAR) using labour-
based methods Handbook”, Cleas-Axel Andersson, Andreas Beusch and Derek Miles, ILO 1996.
4.3 COMPACTION
Compaction is a vital part of road construction. Efficient
compaction makes it possible to substantially improve the bearing
capacity and stability of a fill, to increase the impermeability and,
in most cases, to practically eliminate settlement. Consequently,
compaction makes the soil sufficiently stable to withstand
permanent loads and traffic, so maintenance costs are greatly
reduced. Compaction costs represent only a comparatively small
share of the total construction costs, normally less than 5%. The
compaction criteria are deduced from the Proctor curve, which is
determined by either the Standard or the Modified Proctor test.
This curve shows the relationship between the dry density and the
moisture content.
With a given amount of compaction each soil has an "optimum moisture
content" at which a maximum dry density is obtained. The compaction
energy used in the Modified Proctor test is 4.5 times larger than in the
Standard Proctor test, which results in the maximum dry density being 5 to
10% higher than obtained with the Standard Proctor test.
For rural roads compaction can be specified in terms of values of dry
density varying between maximum dry density of Standard Proctor and
that of Modified Proctor tests. Accordingly, the variation of moisture
content is specified at approximately the optimum value.
The average Proctor curves are all rather similar in shape. Generally
speaking, a flat curve denotes a closely graded soil, and a curve with a
pronounced peak denotes a well-graded soil. On the right-hand side all the
curves approach the saturation line and the peaks all occur at an air void
content of approximately 5%.
In the field, soils are compacted by applying energy in one of three ways,
which are, in order of duration of the stresses which they apply:
• Pressure (rolling)
• Impact (ramming)
• Vibration.
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The types of compaction equipment that are available can be listed under
these three headings as follows:
Rollers: Smooth-wheel, pneumatic-tyre, or sheep foot rollers, lorries,
pneumatic-tyre construction machinery and track-laying vehicles.
Rammers: Dropping weight (including piling equipment), internal
combustion type and pneumatic type.
Vibrators: Out-of-balance weight type and pulsating hydraulic type
(mounted on screeds, plates or rollers).
Hand rammers Hand rammers are normally used for compaction fairly restricted areas
particularly those inaccessible to plant. If it is not possible to transport
compaction plant to the construction site the gang of labourers equipped
with hand rammers can be positioned to cover the width of the formation.
Effective compaction is possible if the material layers are restricted to a
maximum of 100-150 mm.
Power rammers Power rammer: Even relatively light power rammers can produce a high
degree of compaction either by using a small area rammer of a relatively
fast stroke. Power rammers and falling weight compactors produce great
compactive effort at depth, but have an inherently low output. They are
used on all types of soil usually for reinstatement of trenches and
compaction in confined area such as bridge abutment.
Light vibrating Vibrating plate of less than 450 kg is only suitable for granular soils.
equipment Heavier compactors are suitable for most other soils with the exception of
heavy clays.
Vibrating rollers, less than 2 tons are only suitable for granular soils.
Heavier compactors are suitable for most other soils with the exception of
uniformly grade sand. In general a vibrating roller will compact to a greater
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Work procedure To produce a good quality road, it is important that all soils are properly
compacted. Compaction should be carried out along the road line starting
at the shoulder of the road and gradually working towards the centre line.
Appendix 1 presents production norms of light equipment items.
Pulverisation With enough passes animal drawn rotary and disc harrows and the
tractor-drawn discs harrow will produce the required degree of
pulverisation, but they are designed mainly to reduce the soil lumps on
the surface only and their depth of penetration is limited. The tractor-
powered devices operate at a faster rate and produce a greater depth of
penetration than those drawn by animals.
The various types of rotavator are designed to produce a high degree of
pulverisation in relatively few passes. Those mounted on four wheeled
tractors operate at a faster rate, and produce a greater depth of
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Manual operation If spreading of the stabiliser is to be done manually then the boundaries
of the area to be stabilised should be set out using pegs and string lines
with suitable permanent reference marks placed well clear of the area
being processed. Then the bags of cement or lime should be placed at
predetermined intervals in a number of longitudinal rows. The positioning
of each bag is such that its contents are the correct amount required for
the depth of soil layer to be stabilised and the surrounding square area.
The bags are split open and the stabiliser raked and shovelled or hoed
uniformly over the area being processed.
If mixing is to be carried out manually this should be done by first dividing
the soil, spread with stabiliser, into convenient areas of a few square
metres. Labour should then be instructed to collect the enclosed material
into a heap, which is then turned with a shovel or hoe, and re-spread.
Studies in India show that if the material is heaped and turned a minimum
of four times, 70-75 per cent of the strength obtained with machine
rotavating can be achieved. Mixing more than four times will further
increase the soil strength.
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steeper the sieve is held, the finer the sand will be. Heavy weight sand in
generally is more suitable for concrete construction.
Cement bags Cement (bags) should be stored in a dry room on a raised wooden
platform approx. 20 cm above ground level and not less 30 cm away from
the walls and roof. Air circulation should be avoided by placing the bags
close to each other and make the storage place airtight. The maximum
amount of bags to be stapled on top of each other is seven or eight.
Water Water must be clean and do not contain salt. Dirty water should be stored
in drums and allowed to settle before it can be used for mixing. The
amount of water should be the minimum necessary for sufficient
workability.
Hand- versus machine When concrete is mixed by hand it requires more water than when it is
mixing mixed by machines, respectively 19 and 16 litres per bag of cement.
Source: M. Allal and G.A. Edmonds: Manual on the Planning of Labour-Intensive Road
Construction, 1977, ILO
Brooming with a stiff fibre brush ideally roughens the surface.
It is important to ensure proper curing of the pavement. Curing requires
moist concrete and therefore it is recommendable to cover the pavement
with bags, sand or water. After the curing period the top 75 mm of the
expansion joints between the sections are filled with bitumen.
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Pipes should be placed level and should have and internal diameter of 0.4
m or more. Smaller pipes block up easily. Above the crown of the pipe a
soil cover is needed to spread the concentrated forces by trucks and carts.
The thickness of the cover should at least be 0.4 m or 0.75*Diameter,
whatever is higher. In countries where the soil cover will be frozen during
the winter, the minimum soil cover is at least 1 m or 0.75*Diameter.
To avoid erosion under the exit of the culvert, the invert of the pipe is
placed at least 0.1 D, maximum 0.5 D below the downstream canal bed.
Some sedimentation in the pipe is normal and can be allowed. The flow
capacity should be based on the reduced cross section. In earth canals the
flow velocity in the pipes should be limited to 1.7 times the permissible
canal velocity.3
It is important not to raise the level of the road at the location of the
culvert. When a (part) of the culvert is laid above the level of the
surrounding road, the changes are that excess water will overtop the road.
The flow section of the culvert is reduced considerably. Furthermore this
type of construction results in additional tensions within the pavement,
often resulting in damages. The level of the pavement above bridges may
be raised to create the necessary headroom, when the channel operates
as a fairway.
Foundation In most cases the pipes are laid directly in the undisturbed soil. However
when the soil is to weak it may be necessary to construct a foundation,
like reinforced concrete slabs, or a piled foundation.
3
T.K.E. Meijer: Design of Smallholders’ Irrigation Systems, Wageningen Agricultural University, 1993.
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Nowadays most
concrete pipes have
bell and spigot joints.
There are various techniques to make the joints impervious, but the use of
clay or mortar is not one of them. Both materials are not flexible and
easily crack to settings and temperature. The most common solution is the
use of rubber rings. The spigots are either conic shaped or contain a
Spigot with groove groove to fix the ring. Alternatively the bell may be conic shaped. The ring
is put at the very end of the spigot. While the spigot enters into the bell,
the rubber rings rolls into the groove or to the position where it is clamped
between the spigot and bell.
The pipes should be placed in a trench that is cut after the excavation of
the drains. Preferably the whole trench is cut first prior the pipes are laid.
However due to traffic conditions, ground water conditions and limited
storage capacity of the soil it may be necessary to cut the trench in
piecemeal and lay just a few pipes at the time. However the latter method
is more difficult and requires extra attention during setting out.
The bed width of the trench is usually the pipe diameter plus 1 meter. The
pipe is laid in the middle. The extra meter allows workers to compact the
refill properly. Trenches often easily calve in. Therefore heavy equipment
and the materials should not be placed near the edges to the trench.
The edges of the concrete pipes break easily if they are not laid in the
exact same line (both horizontal and vertical directions). The workers
should therefore be experienced in this activity and appreciate that laying
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PVC pipes are more flexible, but their ends also easily break when the
workers push the pipes with to much pressure. The most common
construction method is to connect three pipes at the same time.
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Deep ploughing The following table indicates the furrow depths, the ploughing width, and
performance per hour, the kilowatts and the types of machines needed for
deep ploughing.
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items, contractors shall utilise these equipment items, after all if not used
they are still deteriorating. It should be noted in this context that in high-
income countries most large contractors rent most of their equipment on
project-to-project basis.
The works themselves are usually also divided in groups. These groups
relate to the classes of the contractors. Thus class A contractors can bid for
class A works, class B contractors for class B works, etc.
Because smaller contractors have not yet invested in large equipment fleets
they have more freedom to select to most efficient and appropriate
technology. In quite a few countries, small contractors can form a joint
venture on project-to-project basis and tender for larger sized works than
their original class. Such organisational freedom tends to favour labour-
based technology.
Availability of Although it may sound very obvious but a labour based project can be only
labourers successful if labourers can be attracted to work on the site. Therefore is
necessary to make an estimate of the most likely supply of labourers. The
supply may fluctuate over the seasons. In particular in the agricultural
areas the supply may decline due to the labour requirements in the
agricultural peak seasons. In Muslim countries in the month of fasting,
Ramadan, it may be very difficult to motivate labourers to do hard work.
Another aspect to take into account during the project formulation stage is
the issue of labour migration.
Statistics Additionally shortcomings in statistical data about individual and household
incomes, actual hours of work already occupied, and demand for additional
income are usually lacking.
Deployable surplus However deployable surplus labour is often visible through:
labour 1. Registration of the unemployed
2. Visible unemployed persons during site visit
3. People employed in establishment with very low productivity
4. Surplus of new entrants into the labour market over persons leaving
labour market.
If the pilot project is evaluated positively the agency could start with
formulating a strategy to develop the organisation in the labour-based
direction.
5.2.1 Inputs
Reference materials To allow engineers to make technology choices they require reference data
on costs, production norms, expected lives of products, etc. The agency can
either buy all this information, or assign a certain section of its manpower
to gather and present this information.
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Allocation of time and As stated earlier in this document to increase the efficiency of the total
funds product, the agency has to allocate more time and budget during the design
and preparation stages of the project. After all it is in these stages that the
decisions have high impacts on the cost of the products. Furthermore the
required amount of supervision seems to correlate with labour/capital ratio
of the technology. Thus in other words more time and funds should be
allocated when production technologies require high labour inputs.
Equipment, tools Labour-based technology usually uses a lot of tools with certain forms of
equipment. When however the market does not provide these tools and
equipment, they can obviously not be used. The agency could consider
setting up hire and purchase units. These units of course have to operate as
independent private enterprises. Thus they should aim to break even within
the lives of the equipment and tools.
5.2.2 Culture
The culture of an organisation is defined as the shared values and norms of
people in the organisation. It is important that the employees are taught
how they are expected to think and behave within the organisation and in
this case with regard to the subjects technology choice and labour-based
technology.
5.2.3 Systems
The aspect of systems compromises the internal processes that regulate the
functioning of the organisation. It is a set of agreements that aims to
regulate the activities of management and staff with one or more related
organisational processes, like imbedding technology choice.
Control processes An important process is the control on the process technology choice.
Decision taking, monitoring and providing feedback all these processes
need to be arranged. However the control should not lead to a lame
organisation. The best approach is control afterwards through internal
accounting processes. If it appears the procedures where not obeyed,
sanctions will follow.
5.2.4 Staff
The component staff refers to all activities, rules and regulations related to
staff motivation and utilisation and development of staff capacity.
Training As technology choice and labour-based technology are fairly new processes,
most of the staff most likely will require additional training on these
subjects.
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37
Type of plant Compacted Speed of Number of Area Max. depth Output of
width (m) rolling passes compacted per compaction compacted
(m/min) required hour (sq.m/hr) layer soil per hour
(cu.m/hr
8t smooth 1.78 50 4 1320 150 198
wheeled roller
13.5t grid 1.6 125 7 1715 200 343
roller with 60
kW track
laying tractor
13.5t grid 1.6 250 8 3000 200 600
roller with 112
kW wheeled
tractor
12t 2.08 50 4 1560 130 203
pneumatic-
tired roller
46t 2.36 50 3 2360 250 590
pneumatic-
tired roller
1.7t double 0.84 15 4 189 110 21
vibrating
roller
3.8t towed 1.83 40 6 730 250 180
vibrating
roller
7.7t self- 1.83 80 6 1460 150 220
propelled
vibrating
roller
12t towed 2.08 40 3 1660 300 498
vibrating
roller
2t vibrating 0.86 10 2 258 300 77
plate
compactor
Production norms (M3/hour) for hauling trucks with capacity of 3 m3 for transport of
grassland.
Distance in meters
Soil condition 100 200 300 400 500
Poor 9 8 6.25 5.2 5
Medium 14 12.5 10.6 8.9 8.0
Good 17.6 17.0 14.3 12.9 12.5
Production norms (M3/hour) for dumpers with capacity of 3 m3 for transport of grassland.
Distance in meters
Soil condition 100 200 300 400 500
Poor 11.5 7.6 6.25 5 3.8
Medium 15 11.25 8.8 7.6 7
Good 20 15.7 12.8 11 10
Production norms (M3/hour) for dumpers with capacity of 1.75 m3 for transport of
grassland.
Distance in meters
Soil condition 100 200 300 400 500
Poor 6.25 4.5 3.7 2.6 2.4
Medium 10 6.8 5.2 3.7 3
Good 13 9.1 7.2 5.9 5
Production norms (M3/hour) for Draglines excavating a layer with an equal depth and
loading it into a truck, tipper etc. Note if clay is excavated reduce capacity with 10%
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Production norms (M3/hour) for Draglines excavating a layer with an equal depth and
putting it in depot etc. Note if clay is excavated reduce capacity with 10%
Production norms (M3/hour) for Draglines loading dumpers, tippers etc from a depot.
Note if clay is excavated reduce capacity with 10%
Production norms (M3/hour) for Draglines for transporting soil from a depot to another
depot. Note if clay is excavated reduce capacity with 10%
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Production norms (M3/hour) for Draglines for excavating canals and put soil in a depot.
Note if clay is excavated reduce capacity with 10%
Bucket capacity (litres)
Volume per running meter 400 500 600 700 800
(M3/m)
1 15 15.5
2 23 27 32.5
3 28 32.5 38
4 32.5 37 42 45 47.5
5 35 39 45.5 49 52.5
6 37.5 41 48 53 56.6
7 40 43 50 56 60
8 41 45 52.5 59 62.5
Production norms (M3/hour) for Draglines for excavating canals and loading of
dumpers/tippers. Note if clay is excavated reduce capacity with 10%
Bucket capacity (litres)
Volume per running meter 400 500 600 700 800
(M3/m)
1 18.7 20
2 22.5 26.2 28.7
3 25 30 34
4 27.5 32.5 37.5 42 42.6
5 29 35 40 45 46
6 30 37.5 42.5 47 48
7 31 39 44 48 51
8 32 40 45 50 52.5
Production norms (M3/hour) for Draglines for widening/deepening canals and put soil in
a depot. Note if clay is excavated reduce capacity with 10%
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Production norms (M3/hour) for Draglines for widening/deepening canals and loading of
tippers/dumpers. Note if clay is excavated reduce capacity with 10%
Bucket capacity (litres)
Volume per running meter 400 500 600 700 800
(M3/m)
1 14.5 15
2 19.5 22 22.5
3 22.5 27 33
4 25 30 37 38 40
5 27.5 32.5 40 41.2 44
6 29 35 42 45 47
7 30 37 42.5 47 48
8 30.5 38 42.5 48 50
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APPENDIX 3: GANGFORMATIONS
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The mountain slopes of the Himalayas are known for its instability. The mountain range is the
result of two continental plates moving together. The movement is perhaps only a few
centimetres per year and run through a series of earthquakes. It is on these slopes that
governments and donors are trying to build roads. Many of the roads are characterised by
landslides and are often temporarily closed during parts of the year.
Over the years several techniques were developed to mitigate the risk of landslides. Nepal
developed extensive knowledge in bio-engineering to stabilise the slopes and furthermore it
developed a phased labour-based road construction method. This appendix provides a synopsis
of the latter.
One of the important design criteria of rural road construction in mountains or hills is balancing
of earth. Older techniques would cut and spoil the road in the slope of the mountain or hill. This
old technique has number of negative consequences, like:
• Damage of vegetation down hill
• Slope is more instable and risk of landslide is higher and the cost to reduce the risks
are considerable
• Loss of earth materials to build the road
• Clogging of irrigation canals and polluting other streams, affecting fish populations
• Etc.
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Road departments in the Himalayas are constantly challenged by the instability of the slopes of
the mountain range. Furthermore they usually lack the financial capacity to maintain the
existing road network while providing connectivity to the road network.
To reduce the risk, the so-called phased road construction technology was developed. This
technology produces a low-volume road, but does so in four work phases over a number of
years. The technology is very labour-intensive. It is possible to rely heavily on natural
compaction.
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It is also reviewing the quality of the slopes. If the slopes tend to collapse at this phase it is highly recommendable to realign
the proposed road.
During the third phase the track is widened to the full width and all the support structures like
retaining walls and gabions are constructed. The temporary stone riprap is replaced.
During the third phase a decision has to be made about the camber direction, outward or inward
sloping? Although the camber is constructed during the fourth, inward sloping requires
additional drainage and therefore road width. Outward sloping is cheaper but less comfortable
and less safe for the traffic. The outward sloping roads therefore need to be closed for all
motorised traffic during the rainy season. During the fourth phase the road camber is shaped and
compacted
The result is an earthen road. During later activities it is possible to improve the quality of the
road by adding a gravel layer and protective measures at the hairpin bends, e.g. concreting of the
surface.
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Source pictures/drawings: Werner Paul Meyer; Green Roads in Nepal; Best Practices Report,
1999.
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