OPRC, cost effective way in road construction � Engineer
Pini Bothoko | Tuesday June 17, 2014 06:59
The engineer, Kehnny Mmopa, who was speaking at a workshop held at Tati River Lodge last week said that the ministry could use OPRC for the maintenance of roads in Botswana to help government save money.
The workshop themed, Roads Maintenance Projects Using OPRC Method, was targeting the growing citizen contractors and consultants’ capacity in the road construction industry.
Recently, engineers from government and private sectors were on a study tour of New Zealand and Australia to gain more insight into OPRC methods of maintaining roads.
Led by the Roads Department, this information will now be shared with the local industry to enhance capacity in the maintenance of Botswana’s Public Highway Network (PHN).
Mmopa said that Botswana’s PHN is approximately 20,000 kilometres and worth more than P10 billion.
“As you may be aware, in NDP 10 government is focusing on intensified maintenance of roads in order to protect this asset, and less on development of new roads.
“The government has wasted a lot of money in road maintenance whilst that money could have been used to construct other roads, “ he said.
He said that most of the contractors have been having problems with not finishing their projects, hence leaving the government to end up tendering for the same project and wasting money in the process.
He said that with the use of OPRC, contractors will abide to finish their projects and will be responsible for the maintenance of the projects, which will last for a long time under their care.
He said that they are currently using the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, which goes by the acronym, FIDIC.
FIDIC is selling OPRC to the contractors who would find out if it can be more effective for use in Botswana.
He said that although FIDIC’s approach is more cost effective at the initial stage on a project stand-alone basis, OPRC provides better value for money.
According to a FIDIC website, members are national associations of consulting engineers and it covers 97 countries in the world.
The Association of Consulting Engineers Botswana (ACEB) represents Botswana.
Mmopa said that with OPRC, contractors will be required to hire their designers and will have to do a good job in the first stage so that they should not waste more money at a later stage doing maintenance.
He said that the client being the government would only pay the contract after the project has been completed.
“The road situation in Botswana is currently bad because a few years after completion of the road, there will be potholes, hence the roads would need to be maintained within a short time as they were not well constructed.
“With this method, contractors will be forced to do the maintenance and action will be taken against the contractor if he fails to comply,” he said.
Mmopa said that OPRC could be a combination of traditional methods with design and construction or either of them, but the underlining factor is that levels of services and Key Performance Indicators are achieved.
He said that the possible benefit of OPRC is that there is no need to appoint a board to oversee the project.
It can be operated at department level, which is at the directorate level, and the director can report directly to the permanent secretary.
Meanwhile, contractors who attended the workshop were sceptical about the OPRC. They said even though the new method can work in a developing country like Botswana most of the time the client is the government.
The contractors feared that they would struggle to source funds to start the projects as the client can only pay them after completion of the projects.