Road Project Lab Assesment Report

7/28/2019 Road Project Lab Assesment Report

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Upgrading/Construction of Chipata to Mfuwe (D104 &791) 104 km in Eastern Province

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Laboratory Assessment Report Page 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 2

2.0 ASSESSMENT ....................................................................................................................... 3

3.0 FINDINGS .............................................................................................................................. 4

4.0 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................ 6

5.0 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................. 7

Selected laboratory Photographs ........................................................................................... 7

Site-assessed equipment list from SPA ........................................................................... .. 13


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1.0 INTRODUCTION

The Government of the Republic of Zambia implemented the Upgrading of the Chipata to

Mfuwe Road Project in Eastern Province, under the recurring annual work plans. The road had

initially not been engineered and consisted only of a thinly graveled wearing course through-

out, and two surfaced sections each of less than 2km in length. The full-length-upgrade

engineering design consisted of; widened carriageway to 10.2m (2 lanes), double bituminous

surface dressing type on a geometrically designed alignment. The road route runs in the North-

Westerly direction from Chipata, via settlement areas of Kalichelo, Jumbe, Chisengu and

Mambwe until the national park resort of Mfuwe, approximately 101km.

The Construction Contract was awarded by RDA to Sable Transport & Construction Limited with

BCHOD Consulting Engineers being engaged as the Design/Supervision Engineer and Project

Managers.

During the 22nd

Technical Meeting of the contracted parties held on 25th

June 2012 at the

Resident Engineers Office in Chipata, concerns were raised as to the appropriateness and

adequacy of the provided laboratory for work quality control. The Laboratory, situated at the

Contractors Chisengu Camp, was being currently utilized under a joint Engineer/Contractor

arrangement as there was no exclusive laboratory for the Project Managers Staff.

The Project Manager at the above technical meeting issued an instruction to Project Managers

staff to compile a report on the laboratory situation.

The report herein is a response to that instruction and was prepared by the Assistant Resident

Engineer collaborating with the Engineers Laboratory Technician and the Contractors

Laboratory Manager for consensus.


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2. ASSESMENT

The assessment of the laboratory was based on the Contract Specifications of Particular

Application Clause B1402 Part (c) Laboratories and Clause B1402 Part (c) xvi Provision of

laboratory equipment. The lists of equipment prescribed in the SPA were availed to the

assessors, and an inspection of the facility carried out, with respect to availability and condition

of each equipment piece, see Appendix.

Secondly the menu of the routine tests that were specifically being carried out on Works for the

Project was identified and groups of pieces of laboratory equipment relevant only to each those

particular procedures were also assessed in terms of availability and condition.

The findings of the exercise are summarized on the proceeding page.


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3. FINDINGS

The results of the investigation were summarized in two parts, the first one being a categorized

table of the provided laboratory equipment compared against the prescribed levels in the SPA

and the second, an outline of the routine tests that were being carried out on the works with an

attached comment on the adequacy of the provided equipment as per investigation.

TABLE 3.1: LABORATORY EQUIPMENT SITUATION AGAINST SPA

TEST CATEGORY QUANTITY IN SPA QUANTITY PROVIDED

(No.)

QUANTITY PROVIDED

PERCENTUM

SIEVE ANALYSIS 239 63 26.4 %

ATTERBERG LIMIT171 34 19.8 %

MAXIMUM DRY

DENSITY/CBR

567 79 13.9 %

FIELD DENSITY273 10 3.7 %

CONCRETE177 7 5.3 %

ASPHALT10 4 40.0 %

GENERAL-TO VARIOUS

TESTS ABOVE

16579 3 -

OTHER-GENERAL37 1 2.7 %


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TABLE 3.2: ROUTINE TESTS ON WORK VERSUS CONDITION OF EQUIPMENT

TEST AVAILABLE EQUIPMENT CONDITION

MDD SATISFACTORY

PI SATISFACTORY

GRADING ON GRAVEL UNRELIABLE DUE TO DAMAGED 75 MICRON SIEVE

CBR UNRELIABLE DUE TO MISSING .0127MM GAUGE AND

UNAUTHENTICATED CALIBRATION

UCS SATISFACTORY

DUST CONTENT ON CHPPING STONE UNRELIABLE DUE TO DAMAGED 75 MICRON SIEVE

FLAKINESS INDEX AS SPECIFIED

ALD AS SPECIFIED

Further on the provided building at Chisengu did not meet clause B1402 Part c (i) and (ii) of the

SPA in terms of size and facilities prescribed therein.


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4.CONCLUSION

The provided laboratory did not meet the specification for the Contract in terms of quantities

and standard.

Therefore, there was need to equip the laboratory accordingly, at least to satisfactorily

acceptable levels, so as to build and subsequently maintain confidence in all the parties and

stakeholders that the quality function was being carried out objectively on the Project and to

acceptable standards.


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APPENDIX

Selected laboratory Photographs

Laboratory building with office on the left and main lab room on right


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Reverse view of lab with main room on left and small lab room on right


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Inside main laboratory room


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Inside small laboratory room


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CBR Machine


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Compression strength/UCS Machine


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Site-assessed equipment list from SPA

Documents

Road Project Lab Assesment Report