The Western Cape Provincial Administration, Roads Infrastructure Branch, is responsible for the maintenance of approximately 6000 km of sealed roads. Reseals are regularly undertaken according to needs identified by the Branch's Pavement Management System. In the past, the Branch has experienced problems on seal projects, such as the lack of proper control; inconsistent approaches by consultants; recording and storage of accurate as-built data. Reporting on hard copy forms was time-consuming and often led to data errors that were not easily detected. The Branch has switched from a cumbersome, manual seal control system, to a modern, computerised approach. The Branch also suffers from an acute shortage of skills in both the public and private sector. To meet these challenges and address the above problems, a suite of supporting quality control systems was developed, one of which is the seal process control software discussed in this paper. This software solution addresses the maintenance of materials quality and source records; climatic, environmental and operational records; design change controls; and construction process controls. Advantages of the software include increased confidence and consistency of approach, while using a secure database, where data can be transferred to a central repository for construction monitoring and performance analysis. (a).
Samenvatting