For: Fahud-Qarn Alam road

Annex to: Oman North Graded Road Improvement Project

Annex 1: The road survey reports from RSST Controller North for the immediate action for improving the layout of the road and the traffic signs

Muscat 23.01.2012

Document Control Sheet Project Name: Project Number: Document / Report Title: Document / Report Number: Issue Status/Amendment Issue 1 Document reviewed for Public Exhibition Prepared Name: Sasa Kocic Signature: Sasa Kocic Date: 23/01/12 Reviewed Name: Fayel Zarei Signature: FAYEL ZAREI Date: 24/01/12 Signature: Approved Name: Fahud-Qarn Alam graded road improvement option appraisal Issue 1 North Graded Road Improvement Project

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Foreword

1.1.1. The purpose of this document is to summarize the work carried out by ONE and RSST with regard to the issues of tackling the road safety issues on the graded road from Fahud to Qarn Alam, which was indicated as the priority road for the upgrading into the asphalt road by the on-site engineers and later identified by the TOPSIS method as the priority road for the improvement.

1.1.2. It outlines the advantages and disadvantages of the options considered for the improvement of the road makes recommendations to be brought forward to future decision on the approval of the budget for the upgrading the road into the asphalt road or deciding on the different improvement measures to tackle the safety issues raised.

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2.1.

Road Appraisal
Introduction

2.1.1. The Fahud-Qarn Alam road is the arterial road between the Fahud and Qarn Alam cluster in the PDO concession area, predominantly used by the PDO and related contractors for the transport and commuting, with approximately 117 vehicles per hour using this road. The road is 125km long and going through the mostly rolling (hilly) terrain, with several sections on the steep gradients.

Figure 1: Road in relation to the PDO Locations

2.1.2. At present the road is a graded road with varying width, and with safety lanes on the most of the road sections. The road is maintained as per the PDO requirements and the budget constraints, but the proper requirement, as pre the standards and directives it is that the whole road should be resheeted four times in a year. Regular re-sheeting is not carried out, but only the work in relation to the most damaged areas. 2.1.3. As part of the review process the roads indicated by the Operation and Engineering teams have been classified and prioritized by the use of TOPSYS and the criteria of number of RTA, price for upgrade, price for the maintenance and the traffic counts. The Fahud-Qarn Alam graded road came to be the top one in these criteria mentioned previously.

Figure 2:

Priority of the roads by TOPSYS

2.1.4. The RTA data was collected for the previous three years and the analysis of this data has provided the following:
RTA Date Type of RTA Main cause Contributory factor Road layout: consecutive bends, 18.09.2009 Rollover Driver error steep decline, Road Surface: difference in friction factors 29.07.2010 09.09.2010 08.10.2010 28.11.2010 Rollover Rollover Rollover Rollover Excessive speed Tyre burst Excessive speed Excessive speed Excessive speed Road Surface: difference in friction factors Road Surface: difference in friction factors Road Surface: difference in friction factors Road Surface: difference in friction factors Road Surface: difference in friction factors due to the wet and muddy surface of the road Road layout: rolling terrain 21.04.2011 Rollover Tyre burst Road Surface: difference in friction factors 22.10.2011 Rollover Excessive speed Excessive speed Road Surface: difference in friction factors, holes and cracks in the road surface Missing traffic signs Road Surface: difference in friction factors

23.01.2011

Rollover

03.12.2011

Rollover

The evidences collected from the RTA that happened on this road indicate that the road surface and the road layout play a significant part as the main contributory factors in all of the RTA that have happened. The main problem is indicated in the following picture, and it represents the issue that is common to all of this RTA-s.

Figure 3:

Typical road surface composition for the Fahud-Qarn Alam graded road

The road surface cannot be compacted enough to provide a same friction on all of the wheels of the vehicle, therefore it has the same effect as the water ponds on the asphalted roads, creating the difficulty for the driver to keep his vehicle in line, and encouraging the road users to try to drive on the whole carriageway, instead of driving only on their side of the road. Also, the dispersion of these RTA shows that intervention on one location would not be sufficient, considering that the RTA locations are dispersed along the whole road. The measure of the re-grading or re-sheeting the road would also require a lot of work and it would also affect the usage of this road, considering that the re-sheeting of the graded road uses water etc., therefore also creating the hazard of creating a wet and muddy road surface while trying to improve the condition of the road surface itself. The following pictures are from the RTA-s that happened during the 2011, and they indicate the road surface condition at the time of the RTA:

The pictures are from different RTA-s but they show almost the same conditions of the road layout: straight section, almost level terrain, therefore the application of the traffic signs would not be appropriate because there is no specific danger or hazard to warn the road users of. This kind of interventions can be applied on the approaches to the graded road roundabout close to Qarn Alam, or on the approach to the consecutive bends near Fahud, but on the straight sections of road it would not give any additional information and would not provide the results needed. Further, the RTA locations on the road indicate that the area of intervention would be 98km which is almost the whole road length.

The intervention in regards to the hazard of the consecutive bends near Fahud, if the appropriate solution for the graded road is to be constructed would also require a lot of investment, considering the earthwork needed for the appropriate profile to be achieved. The following pictures indicate the difference in the levels of the existing terrain and the proposed level. And also the 3D representation of the corridor of the graded road, with proper safety lanes is shown to present the future layout.

Difference in the levels would be 16.3m, as indicated in the existing ground (green) and the future ground (red) levels presented below:

The corridor would have to be as presented in the following picture, if terraced walls are not introduced (the picture is for presentation purposes only, the detail design need to be done in order to get the accurate layout and the quantities for the work needed.

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Conclusion
The Fahud-Qarn Alam graded road should be upgraded into the asphalt road considering the traffic volumes, cost for the maintenance and the fact that most of the RTA-s that happened on a straight road, almost level terrain and the soft measures of the driver training and the traffic signs placement will not be sufficient. This is of course the justification for the Fahud-Qarn Alam road only and it cannot be generally applied for upgrading of any other graded road, except as a reference, considering that other graded roads have their own characteristics in terms of layout, RTA data and usage.

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