2.7. Special Problems in the Construction of Rural Roads

Rural roads constitute a special category of roads as regards the type of materials used and construction techniques employed, as compared with roads forming the highway network. As a result, the construction and maintenance problems involved in keeping the rural road network at a satisfactory level of serviceability are of a different quantum and type. Some of these problems are:

♤ Rural roads are generally built up in stages, extending over a number of years. This practice arises from the inadequate availability of finances, as well as from the fact that the traffic is likely to increase after an initial road link is established, thereby necessitating an upgradation of the pavement.

♤ One important and significant feature pertaining to the construction of rural roads is the emphasis placed on the utilisation of the local materials, both soil and stone aggregates in the various layers of the pavement. This necessitates that such materials to be utilized after careful evaluation of their properties and affecting the needed improvements by blending or the use of additives as may be required.

♤ The construction of rural roads is handled by a number of different agencies, varying from state to state. Within the same state different agencies might be building rural roads in different districts.

♤ The level of expertise available shows great variation from department to department, and it is not unusual to find that trained personnel are not available in the executing department to plan, design and construct a rural road that makes optimal use of the material and financial resources available and build a material and financial resources available manual labour is resorted to, to the maximum extent, since providing employment to the local population also forms one of the essential objectives of the various rural development programmes.

♤ Rural labour generally does not have the necessary skills associated with the different phases of road construction, nor is any training imparted to them before inducting them into the construction programme. Employment on such construction works is viewed, rather mistakenly, as a relief measure lesson the problem of rural employment. The consequence of such thinking is a finished product of poor quality, i.e., an improperly built road that has only frittered away the meagre resources.

♤ The lack of adequate quality in the inputs, human as well as material, results in a faster deterioration of the serviceability to a lower than the tolerable level. In turn, these results in greater demands on maintenance, viz, more frequent repairs, involving additional deployment of manpower and materials, all adding upto higher spending on maintenance. If money for maintenance is short, final result will be the deterioration of the roadway leading to the loss of initial capital investment itself.