Listers Greetings. Kindly find attached a response from Engineer Kidenda on the state of Kenyan Roads. RgdsGrace
Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 09:23:03 +0100 From: ekebaya@yahoo.co.uk Subject: RE: KENYA ICT ACTION NETWORK QUESTIONS TO ENGINEER KIDENDA ON THE STATE OF KENYAN ROADS To: ggithaiga@hotmail.com; dg@kenha.co.ke; otieno.barrack@gmail.com
Dear Grace,
I sent this response to you yesterday from our official mail but it seems it did not get through.
Kindly acknowledge receipt
Regards
Esther Kebaya for: Director General, KeNHA
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Hi GG, et al,
While the response is appreciated, it is apparently clear IMHO that internal audits for safety standards do not work for us. Further, it is almost evident that no one can be held accountable or responsible for Road Safety other than myself.
IMHO an independently entity such as NEMA should be mandated to ensure the bare minimum road safety standards such as markings, signage, safety engineering, are in place on our roads. Absence should lead to automatic closures of the roads until the safety features are implemented.
For instance, the so called black-spots have been at the same location for decades. Sadly even the bare minimum signage, that one is approaching a black-spot, is missing let alone re-engineering the road to eliminate the problem (be it a social or technical cause).
With economic growth, we can expect to have many new including young and old drivers coming onto the roads every day. Without some basic safety standards and guidelines we can bet the carnage will only get worse.
As such if road safety is entirely my sole responsibility then excuse my cynicism and probably that of others when using our roads.
my 2 cents.
Michuki.
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Many thanks for following up GG.
Best Regards
Listers
I have removed them from the attachment and copied into the body of the mail for easier reading.
1. Where does Kenya stand when it comes to local road standards vis a vis international standards?
Kenyan road standards are prepared to international standards. Our Road Design Manuals were developed from international standards and customized to suit local conditions. Furthermore, in Kenya, standards make reference to international standards like Road Notes, TRRL, AASHTO, FIDIC among others.
2. What are the “smart transport solutions” (ICTs integration) Kenya is considering to use in order to enhance road safety especially along the entire Thika road?
We are considering installation of traffic lights, road signage and road marking to enhance road safety along the entire Thika road. Further, incorporation of ICT as part of PPP contract for maintenance of Nairobi-Thika Road is being considered.
3. What does KeNHA have to say about the quality of work being done on the road between Rimpa and Magadi (so far upto Kiserian town)?
KeNHA has put in place the right quality control measures to ensure that the works done meet the specifications. However, National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation are laying water pipes along the same road between Kiserian and Ongata Rongai. The material being excavated has been dumped on the side drains and road shoulders. This situation is temporary. Once backfilling is complete, drains will be cleaned and shoulders reinstated.
4. How are roads categorized, in terms of those managed by the local authorities, central government and, if possible, those ones that are internationally managed?
Roads are categorized into Class A, B, C, D, E, urban roads, park roads and unclassified roads. KeNHA manages Class A (International trunk roads), B (national trunk roads) and C. KeRRA manages Class D, E and rural unclassified roads while KURA manages urban roads. KWS manages park roads.
5. Why does the government award contracts to companies that do not do their job professionally?
Government contracts are awarded in accordance with the provisions of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2005 and Regulations, 2006. This includes competitive bidding process through tendering and award to the lowest evaluated bid.
6. There is a contractor who was awarded a contract to rehabilitate Nairobi-Naivasha Road (between the former Museum Hill roundabout and Rironi) and they’ve dug a whole stretch of the road, about a kilometre and a half. They dug up patches everywhere that drivers have to be extra cautious. Is there anything the Authority (assuming the said section is under Eng. Kidenda’s Authority) can do to make sure
there are mechanisms in place for the Contractor to ensure he does not put the lives of road users at risk?
The Contractor milled the road with an intention to immediately cover it with Asphalt Concrete (AC). However, the rains started and AC could not be laid under the wet weather conditions which lasted for two weeks resulting in further deterioration of the milled section.
Nevertheless, the section was covered with AC after the rains subsided. The Contractor is under instructions not to open up large sections of road and leave them exposed for longer periods.
7. How ‘safe’ are our new roads? Would they pass muster if road safety audits were conducted?
All new roads are designed and constructed to achieve the highest possible safety standards. Where the highest possible safety standard cannot be attained due to the nature of terrain, appropriate speed reduction measures are implemented. It is worth noting that safety on our roads is highly dependent on disciplined use of the roads by all the users i.e. motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, hand cart pullers, amongst others.
8. There is a fundamental design flaw on our roads. Are concerned parties now ready to listen or are we going to export these problems to Langata Rd, Ngong Rd, New airport terminals, Lamu Port etc?
We are not aware of any fundamental design flaw on our roads. We will appreciate if you can highlight those fundamental design flaws for our further necessary action.
9. There is a role played by auditors at various stages. Do we have evidence that KeNHA engages these or in other words do we have people in Government/Private sector playing that role currently?
KeNHA has an Internal Audit section which audits all the works and services undertaken by the organisation on a daily basis. In addition, KeNHA has a Quality Assurance department which is in charge of ensuring quality in all its endeavours. The Quality Assurance department usually engages the services of the Private sector to execute their function independently. Furthermore, Kenya Roads Board engages the Private sector to conduct audit checks on roads financed under Road Maintenance Levy Fund. Lastly, the Kenya National Audit Office conducts regular audits on all roads contracts countrywide.
10. There is data collection and its role. But as we know data is useless unless turned to information. Does the relevant authority use this data?
All required data is collected and utilised. These include data on traffic surveys, axle load surveys, materials investigations, environmental impact assessment, topographic survey, accidents, weather patterns, among other data are all utilized for design and
eventually construct roads.
11.There is the common user and there very annoying problems-turn-offs which are suddenly blocked with no notice, oncoming vehicle channelled to your lane, taking one hour to get to your gate while all the time you can see it a few metres from where you are stuck! Who is listening and helping?
As explained earlier, road safety is a function of disciplined use by all the road users. Traffic rules are to be enforced by the Traffic Police. Our mandate does not include enforcement of traffic rules. There are traffic signs to notify deviations and speed limits to make motorists aware of the situations ahead. This calls for motorists to be vigilant and observant when driving.
12. There is the role that ICT can play to enable smart infrastructure – my take is that unless we embed it in at step 1 (design) above, it will be most likely be cosmetic.
Currently we have employed use of ICT in monitoring our weighbridges and have also installed automatic counters on our roads to count vehicular traffic plying the roads. However, due to constrained funding from the exchequer, and the need to increase connectivity countrywide through construction of all weather roads, the authority has prioritized building of more new roads and maintenance of existing ones. With the advent of PPP and having its legal framework in place, the use of ICT and its utilisation in Smart Highways will easily be accommodated.
13. Are there any efforts to integrate intelligent transportation systems in these new super highways? (Making the infrastructure Smart) Should there be an accident on the one way lane (how do we alert speeding drivers coming from behind). Secondly is there a provision for transmitters that can allow smart driving and speed cameras?
This question has been addressed above.
14. What strategy does KeNHA have for creating ducts for fibre optic and power cables, are we likely to see the new roads being dug up?
We incorporate ducts in our road projects for passing of services across the road. Where the ducts are not in place we only allow micro-tunnelling. Digging up of roads for purposes of utilities is no longer accepted.
15. Are there frameworks for evaluating infrastructure alternatives and clear processes for evaluating infrastructure system designs?
All these are taken care of at Feasibility, Preliminary and Detailed Engineering studies.
it does say a lot that communication with a public office, in charge of such a huge amount of investor money takes that form. Its first and foremost making Grace et al some sort of email to barua ya kawaida converter, is more environmentally unfriendly (printing paper and all and is overally inefficient. Im therefore not surprised at most of the responses. Imagine if this was the fire brigade , and there was a fire. Now put that particular ministry in the context of V2030.
Listers
Internal audits, are very different from mandated, arm’s length road safety audits.
The outcomes cannot be the same.
Kind regards
Eric Aligula Magolo, PhD Programmes Coordinator & Ag. Head, Infrastructure and Economic Services Division Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) P.O. Box 56445, 00200 Nairobi, Kenya Telephone: +254-20-2719933/4 Fax: +254-20-2719951 E-mail: jairah@kippra.or.ke URL: http://www.kippra.org
Proudly Kenyan, Kenyan by Nature! “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility……….I welcome it.” John F. Kennedy “To allow other people’s assessment of you to determine your own self-assessment is a very big mistake” Columbia University President Lee Bollinger “Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory, nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt “Ex Africa semper aliquid novi” “Per aspera ad astra!”
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Some years ago, an Area Chief in a Kiambu Location visited to pay his respects at a residence where we are arranging for a burial.
He was in a rush to leave and told us he had to go inspect some roads as per Michuki requirements.
At that point in time, John Michuki held Area Chiefs responsible to audit work done by road contractors in their locations.
If I recall well, Hon. Michuki was the Minister of Roads for a few months after leaving the Internal Security docket.
In the oil and gas industry, each company has internal department called Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Services that are responsible for ensuring safety of all operations for the organization and sites.
Anyone who has worked under the supervision of a HSE department can comment on the outcomes.
Regards,
Michuki.
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I concur with Eric on this one. To expect Chiefs to do audits on the quality of work done on Roads Construction & Maintenance is Pedestrian (Pun intended!) thinking..
Having said that, Eric, it would be good to know what the agencies responsible are doing to ensure well done work on our infrastructure. What piques me is the obvious lack of finishing in some of the projects (which i guess Chiefs) can point out…
Regards
Ali Hussein
Listers
Generally, road safety audits involve the deliberate evaluation of road development schemes during design, construction and operation with the specific purpose of identifying potential road safety challenges to any road user (pedestrians and drivers) and proposing mitigation measures (countermeasures) to remove or mitigate those challenges. It is a formal, written process involving signed reports.
The import of this discussion would be to support KENHA and all other road authorities to pursue the integration of these processes in our road infrastructure development processes.
Part of the reason why this process should be an arm’s length process is the fact that segregation of functions is key to ensuring significant reductions in the cost of road crashes on the economy. I submit it is part of the overall effort of reducing the cost of doing business in the country for both domestic and foreign investors.
Kind regards
Eric Aligula Magolo, PhD
Programmes Coordinator & Ag. Head, Infrastructure and Economic Services Division
Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA)
P.O. Box 56445, 00200 Nairobi, Kenya Telephone: +254-20-2719933/4 Fax: +254-20-2719951 E-mail: jairah@kippra.or.ke URL: http://www.kippra.org http://www.kippra.org/
Proudly Kenyan, Kenyan by Nature!
“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility……….I welcome it.”
John F. Kennedy
“To allow other people’s assessment of you to determine your own self-assessment is a very big mistake”
Columbia University President Lee Bollinger
“Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory, nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Ex Africa semper aliquid novi”
“Per aspera ad astra!”
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2012 2:51 PM Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions KENYAN ROADS
I concur with Eric on this one. To expect Chiefs to do audits on the quality of work done on Roads Construction & Maintenance is Pedestrian (Pun intended!) thinking..
Having said that, Eric, it would be good to know what the agencies responsible are doing to ensure well done work on our infrastructure. What piques me is the obvious lack of finishing in some of the projects (which i guess Chiefs) can point out…
Regards
Ali Hussein
Ali,
Will give you the benefit of the doubt factoring you may not be trained on Public Administration like John Michuki was.
How does community policing work? Someone in the community knows what the crime is if not who the criminal is. A reward is offered and…
A road contractor works with a team which knows when they are taking short cuts. Getting to know members of this team is a way to find out what went wrong, why the road develops holes again 2 months after the work is completed.
The project manager may lie to the Area Chief, but not all of the casual laborers will, especially the disgruntled ones.
Last year, a petrol attendant in Parklands told me when he worked on Jogoo Road, they used to sell normal unleaded fuel as ”V-Power”. They would change the signage on the fuel pumps, when “V-Power” ran out – they would make more money of normal unleaded fuel.
Did the petrol attendant have to be a a chemical engineer to know the crime committed?
Muraya
Point noted and acceded. However if you noted in my response I also accepted that there are certain aspects of this that may be a layman should be able to point out. I believe the key point as far as audits are concerned is that they need to be structured with clear mandates and deliverable.
Regards
Ali Hussein
Talking of standards, aren’t small rumbles supposed to be sufficiently spaced to allow you to brake before you hit a large bump. anyone noticed the new ones on Thika Road are right next to bumps ?
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Dear listers,
I feel I have very little sensible to contribute to this, mostly, I think, because my brain froze at the overall claim that quality management etc is well and dandy in our road management. It’s a notion that conflicts not just with my knowledge of square metres of road just being washed away in my wider neighbourhood (Westlands roundabout, James Gichuru Road, Rhapta Road, Thigiri Ridge Road), I try not to go anywhere else anymore because it involves, umm, traffic.
So this is merely for your amusement. I’ve just been to my shags. Attached a picture of what was a little bit of a traffic jam just outside of Hamburg on the Autobahn. As you can see, those Germans are very inefficient with their traffic jams. They leave way too much space. I very nearly urged my mum to shove the car into the middle bit between the two lanes and go for it.
Have a wonderful evening!
Andrea
Andrea
With the amount of rail in Hamburg, I would think twice about fueling my car to hit the autobahns unless of course you are one who likes cruising down St Pauli.
Well Andrea I have even less to contribute than you, but nice shags:-)
Sent from my iPhone
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+1
walu.
I should have probably brought this one up earlier. I am an avid cyclist. One of the biggest issues cyclists face is a lack of proper dedicated cycling lanes.
City council guys once harrassed me for riding on what they called a ‘pedestrian only’ walk way. Is this the case or can I ride on this walkways (with full respect for the other users of course) without fear of expensive bike confiscation?
Obviously cycling on the road is a bit insane on some highways. Is there a chance at least on the new roads this can be taken to consideration?
gitau
Listers,
The community has taken this discussion further, please see below
http://www.ihub.co.ke/blog/2012/05/translating-online-conversations-to-offline-action-the-case-of-nairobi-road-safety-and-traffic/
Regards,
Patrick M. Karanja
________________________________ Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 10:09 AM
I should have probably brought this one up earlier. I am an avid cyclist. One of the biggest issues cyclists face is a lack of proper dedicated cycling lanes.
City council guys once harrassed me for riding on what they called a ‘pedestrian only’ walk way. Is this the case or can I ride on this walkways (with full respect for the other users of course) without fear of expensive bike confiscation?
Obviously cycling on the road is a bit insane on some highways. Is there a chance at least on the new roads this can be taken to consideration?
gitau
haiya! @andrea the autobahn has a max of 120?
wait, is that kph or mph?
Km/h.
In principle, there’s no general speed limit on the Autobahn – but speed limits will be imposed for specific stretches if the conditions require it, e.g. for a steep descent, or a construction site, or lanes being merged, or rainy days, etc.
And, more importantly, it’ll be enforced
I do not know why but ive always had a feeling that if traffic management was handed over to KRA, and their revenue collection targets doubled, we would have more order on our roads.
Couldn’t agree more. I suppose borrowing from similar countries with IT-supported traffic management systems (Malaysia comes to the mind) would see KRA minting millions daily from the road hogs.
Not very impressed with KeNHA’s responses: quality is the number one problem with Kenyan roads primarily because of sleaze. At this point, having spent billions of dollars on roads since 2002, we need an ex ante impact characterisation and analysis of our investments just to have a feel of if we are in the right direction or we are just spending, spending, spending.