A study has been conducted of road maintenance in Ghana. This is a report of the part of the study that was concerned with the accomplishment of various road maintenance activities and the effectiveness of the utilisation of the different resources devoted to those activities. Field observations have been made of the conduct of the main maintenance activities. Overall accomplishment was much less than programmed for most activities. Measurements showed that rates of output in equipment-based activities were poor because the availability and utilisation rates of mechanical plant were extremely low. In those labour-based activities for which transport was required outputs were also low, due to poor availability of vehicles. It is concluded that more reliance on labour-based techniques for routine maintenance would be advantageous. At present the very limited capacity to support mechanical plant severely constrains the effective use of that plant. The use of mechanical equipment would thus best be concentrated on those maintenance activities for which there is no practical alternative technique. (Author/publisher)
Abstract