Roads failure and sustainability challenges of Zambian roads: A review of current practice
Nathan Ntanda CHILUKWA, Mohamed Mostafa Hassan MOSTAFA, Christopher NGWIRA
Abstract. Significant investments have been made in the past ten years to improve the road network in Zambia. Programs initiated by the Government, such as the Link 8000 and L400, among others, aimed at constructing and rehabilitating more than 10, 000 km of roads at an estimated cost of over US$ 31 billion. However, as the programs progressed, it was noticed that some roads were failing before their design period (premature failure), calling into question the durability of the constructed roads and whether value for money was attainable. The problem is attributable to a wide range of factors. In the quest to achieving sustainability in the sector, all steps in the implementation process of roads construction must be interrogated to identify factors contributing to failure and curtail their impact. In this regard, this paper reviews some of the design practices and decisions for roads in Zambia. The paper reviews Terms of Reference (ToRs) and pavement structural designs for some road projects distributed all over Zambia to highlight challenges and inadequacies with the currently applicable standards and design guidelines. The treatment of uncertainties in design inputs and integration of sustainability concepts is also explored and benchmarked with regional and international best practice. Recommendations are presented to improve decision making during the roads design process.
Keywords
Zambia, Premature Failure, Pavement Design, Durability, Sustainability
Published online 2/25/2025, 10 pages
Copyright © 2025 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Nathan Ntanda CHILUKWA, Mohamed Mostafa Hassan MOSTAFA, Christopher NGWIRA, Roads failure and sustainability challenges of Zambian roads: A review of current practice, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 48, pp 988-998, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644903414-107
The article was published as article 107 of the book Civil and Environmental Engineering for Resilient, Smart and Sustainable Solutions
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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