Roads are part of the infrastructure backbone needed to support free movement of people and goods and to be able to conduct trade across its borders. This is all the more important in a landlocked country like Rwanda. For this reason, the government has embarked on a comprehensive plan to improve the quality of national and district roads.

Honey, I’ll be a bit late: rush hour at Kisimenti. (file photo)

Apart from the already completed roads such as Ruhengeri-Gisenyi and Nyamata-Nemba, the ministry of infrastructure is therefore engaged in negotiations for the reconstruction of the multimillion Kigali-Ruhengeri road which will be funded by the World Bank.

On top of that, there are plans of rehabilitating Kigali-Gatuna and Butare-Rusizi roads which will be funded by the European Union and African Development Bank respectively.

According to sources within the ministry, currently negotiations are going on with construction companies, and by 2012 work should be in progress.

The roads to be rehabilitated will be upgraded to a seven meter carriage way rather than the six meter width they had. According to a road construction expert who did want to be named as he is not entitled to speak on behalf of the ministry, roads to be rehabilitated will be made of quality asphalt with a minimum of 40 millimeters thickness.

Apart from the national roads connecting provinces and neighboring countries, the ministry has also embarked on works on 36 kilometer of roads within Kigali that were in a poor state. Armed with a US$30 million loan from China’s Exim Bank, the ministry has commissioned the China Roads and Bridge Corporation to rehabilitate nine sectors of the 36 kilometer roads. They include city center-Sopetrad; International Airport to Kanombe military camp; Sopetrad-KBC, Novotel-King Faycal; Avenue de la Justice to Nyamirambo; Kacyiru-Yamaha, KBC-Prince House; and Ombudsman’s office-Primature.

These roads will be made of a 40 millimeter binder, a substance similar to asphalt but lower in bitumen content. It will contain 50 millimeters of asphalt and 90 millimeters of wearing course.

The expert however indicates that drainage was as much needed as the roads, pointing out that without them they would not last. “Without a proper drainage system for the roads, water would penetrate the wearing course of the road and it won’t last long,” he says.

He points out that roads made of asphalt have a life span of 5 years while double base roads usually don’t go beyond 3 years. Moreover, routine maintenance is required to ensure they are kept in good shape.

Expansion impossible

With Kigali’s rather narrow roads and the ever-increasing traffic, some of the main routes become clogged during rush hours. At those times, on the road to the airport around Kisimenti area and the road from city center to Sopetrad, for instance, traffic moves at snail-pace.

Unfortunately, according to the expert expansion of the roads is often impossible, due to the rolling terrain of the country. Besides, it would be costly as it would require demolishing permanent structures such as buildings.

“The best way to deal with the issue is to create alternative routes, rather than expansion of roads,” he says.

It also has to be noted that the Kigali master plan provides for zonal self-contained development. This means that parts of Kigali will have all the necessary facilities such as schools, shopping malls and hospitals, thus reducing traffic to the city center.

“Obviously, there will be the central business district and administrative blocks within the city center, but zonal development will significantly reduce traffic flows into the city center,” the expert says.

To further reduce traffic congestion within the city, plans are being made to put in place routes that encircle the city center. This would mean, for example, that if you travel from the Eastern to the Western province, it would not be necessary anymore to pass through the city center.

“Ideally a ring road would be preferable, but with Kigali’s topography it would be hard and expensive,” a source within the ministry of infrastructure explains.

Yet he adds that alternatives are being looked at to determine which option to go for.

The ministry has already issued a tender for a Kigali transportation plan the deadline of which is on the 16th of this month. The plan will propose different designs depending on effectiveness and costs. On top of the Kigali transportation plan, the ministry will also put in place a national transport master plan. This plan will take into account issues regarding transportation economic issues; various transport mechanisms and how they would fit in the entire plan.

Rwanda Transport Development Agency

The Ministry is also contemplating to put in place a highway maintenance system (HMS). HMS will give roads maintenance structure, and will be incorporated into a computer base system with HDM4 software developed by the World Bank.

“This will help identify certain roads or sections of roads that require repairs,” the expert says.

All of that of course requires monitoring and coordination, which is why the government plans to set up the Rwanda Transport Development Agency (RTDA) which will be mandated to oversee the implementation of all transport policies in the country. The law establishing the agency is currently in parliament for ratification.

Despite all the plans to ensure that the country has better functioning roads and an efficient transport system, there is an acute shortage of capacity. This has forced the ministry to rely on expatriates who come at a high cost.

And even though institutions of higher learning such as KIST and the National University of Rwanda produce engineers, they have no experience whatsoever.

“We have already employed twelve of the engineers but they need to undergo extensive training,” the expert explains.

Collaboration between local institutes and foreign universities are being sought in order to bridge capacity gap. “The target is to have 100 experienced engineers by 2012,” the source says.

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