Transport and De-mining Steering Group - Briefing on WFP Roads and De-mining.
14/03/08
· The first tranche of funding from the GoSS has been received by WFP last week. While $8 of the $15 million has already been spent – the remaining balance has allowed WFP to let out a number of contracts as detailed below. It will unfortunately not have much effect on the roads prior to the onset of the rains.
· First work undertaken with GoSS funds commenced 5 days after receipt of funds.
· The CHF has allocated $200,000 to WFP for the preparation of Emergency within Emergency bridge and road repairs. We are currently sourcing materials in Kenya to be prepositioned in Juba and a fund will be reserved to let small contracts out when/if wet season collapses occur.
1. De-mining activity.
WFP has contracted the services of several de-mining companies, and all tasking and coordination is carried out with UNMAO. These tasks are in direct support of the roads contractors.
RONCO.
Ronco has completed the bridge clearance on the Nimule road, and is now working on the DA’s on the Nimule road, and the Juba-Bor road.
2. Road repairs quick update.
a. Kaya-Yei
The road section from Kaya to Kombo is in poor repair due to movement of traffic in the wet. There are still no weigh bridges and traffic is routinely overloaded. It has been reported trucking companies are moving loads from two Lorries to one at the border to reduce their costs, but obviously increasing axle loads to unacceptable levels. Road repairs have been concentrated on the worst spots on the Kaya-Yei section, but due to levels of traffic (it is estimated over 2000 vehicles per day travel this road to Yei) more work will be required to keep this road open all year round, before the upgrade works under SETIDP take place – hopefully in 2009.
UNMIS in a meeting held Feb 20th were to commence emergency maintenance on this road from Feb 25th.
b. Yei-Faraksika.
A maintenance contract is prepared and is projected to be let in April 2008 on this section funded by GoJ.
c. Faraksika – Rumbek.
A maintenance contract is prepared and is projected to be let in April 2008 funded by GoJ.
d. Yei-Juba
This road was heavily damaged due to high water tables from flooding/rain events causing soft roads to be damaged by the unregulated trucks. A maintenance contract has been pending since August 2007 for this road, and has now been signed after receipt of the first tranche of GoSS funds.
e. Nimule – Juba.
No road works are being carried out since the completion of the initial contract at the end of 2006. (see de-mining for works on this road.)
f. Rumbek – Shambe.
The contractor is continuing slowly from Yirol towards Shambe. Due to the damage from the 07 floods which necessitated repairs on the whole length Rumbek – Yirol funds will be short of reaching Shambe. The re-scoping has been done and approximately 1.87 Million will be required to complete all weather road to Shambe A Maintenance contract is prepared and will be let hopefully April 2008 for Rumbek to Yirol section, funded by GoJ.
g. Rumbek-Tonj.
A Maintenance contract has been signed after receipt of first tranche of GoSS funds.
h. Tonj-Wau.
This section was complete November 07. This will need maintenance for the 08 wet season, but there is currently no funding available.
i. Kapoeta- Juba.
The road contractor stopped in 2007 due to insecurity past Liria, and lack of funds to continue. A maintenance contract for the section Kapoeta to Juba has been signed after receipt of first tranche of GoSS funds. It will include the gravelling of the remaining 40km section.
j. Juba-Bor.
The original contract finished end of February 2007. A maintenance contract has been signed after receipt of the first tranche of the GoSS funds, and will include the remaining 70km of gravelling.
k. Bor Dikes and roads.
The road Mabior-Maar has been completed. Work on the dikes is still pending drying of the area from the 07 floods. In the meantime the contractor is repairing roads damaged by the (mainly) oil companies using the roads in the wet season.
l. Nadapal-Kapoeta Maintenance.
The road has been maintained and is now complete. It is recommended that there should be another routine maintenance contract in place for 2008. Currently there is no funding for this activity.
m. Wau-Abyei.
Work resumed as the area dried out north of Gogrial in January 2008, and continues. DFID recently gave a further USD 5 million to compete the road to Wunrock (Lol river) after which it will join the road to Abyei, and the bridge built by the Chinese oil company in the area.
n. Mabior-Malakal.
Works are continuing with heavy security presence North of Duk Padiet towards Ayod on the Canal embankment. De-mining has produced delays on this road again with stoppages of de-mining surveyors, and discovery of a mine on the carriageway north of Duk Padiet. It is now expected that there will be a shortfall from all the delays in funding to reach Malakal, and WFP will be quantifying the effect and shortfalls soon.
Constraints.
Axle load / weight limitations; (NO CHANGE)
Roads failed in the ’06 and 07 rainy seasons without limits in place and will do so again in the coming 08 season. Heavily overloaded trucks are the norm in South Sudan, axle loads of over 22T have been found by WFP staff, and a disregard by most transporters to take care of the roads in the wet have led to wholesale destruction in places. It must be remembered that large sections of road have now been through two or in some cases three rainy seasons without maintenance – due to lack of or late funding.
WFP has limited its axle load limitations for its transporters, and has placed information signboards along roads indicating recommended axle load regulations. This has been done in consultation with the GoSS Ministry of Transport and Roads, and with various State ministries of Infrastructure.
At present there are still no weigh bridges in country, and WFP is now seeing damage being done to roads on a daily basis. Probably the biggest cause of problems is the overloaded fuel delivery tankers – routinely carrying over 60,000l fuel.
Barriers: (NO CHANGE)
WFP has initiated a barrier system, with a basic design for a barrier to be put in place and manned by State Govt. to close the roads when wet.
All barriers have been manufactured and 100% delivered to final destination.
50 barriers have been delivered to sites and so far 46 number have been installed but are so far very few are manned.
WFP and UNMIS are working with State Authorities to initiate a training for police manning barriers in 2008.
WFP will concentrate on the State of Jonglei for the coming rainy season, as the area most vulnerable to destruction due to the type of soils available.
Bridges.
a. WFP has 200,000 from CHF for emergency bridging. Plans are being prepared for the purchase of emergency steel bridge parts, gabions etc to enable quick repair of collapsed bridges in the next year. WFP will also fix the deck on the Yei-Faraksika road – Goli Bridge when funds are received.
b. The issue of the supply of one ACROW bridge from UNMIS still needs resolving. After initial discussions we have been told it was en-route for Wau-Raja road. WFP have no problem with this, but need it confirm this is the case. In the meantime a bridge list is being updated by WFP for its stretches for further discussion on possible repair where required for structural or safety reasons.
3. Other activities:
a. HIV / AIDS.
This activity stopped in early 2007 due to lack of funds. DFID have given funds recently for this activity, and it is hoped to be able to re-start in mid 2008.
b. Airstrips.
The Goss has pledged WFP funds to rehabilitate, to the same standard as Rumbek, the following 5 airstrips – Torit/Bor/Yambio/Aweil/Capital Warrap state. Surveys have been completed in Bor, Aweil and Torit, and will be soon ongoing in Yambio. To date no funds have been received for this activity from GoSS.
4. FUNDING.
The SO has been extended with BR5 and the current status is:
programme / Total Programme amount of funds required / funds received (to date) / shortfallUSD / USD
SO 10368 (phases 2 to 4) / 252,069,217 / 246,565,836 / 5,503,381
Note the following are pledged – pending final confirmation;
DFID – USD 6,500,000
CHF – USD 200,000
GoSS funds. (approx 55 Million USD)
A new payment schedule was drawn up with MOTR and agreed with WFP. The first payment for Oct/Nov/Dec 07 was received late on 6th March. All contracts were signed and commencement meetings held by 11th March, and GTZ started on the Juba-Torit section on the 11th March.
Other Items remaining to be funded under programme include:
· Programme support costs
· Programme socioeconomic report preparation
For questions on the roads contact the
WFP lead Engineer;
Or overall Project manager;