L Chummun Bhujohory - ARSO · L Chummun Bhujohory 26 Feb 2015 TANZANIA BAM/PTB/TBS Public Symposium...

L Chummun Bhujohory

Republic of Mauritius

L Chummun Bhujohory 26 Feb 2015 TANZANIA BAM/PTB/TBS Public Symposium

Major Structural Failures on

NEW ROADS in Mauritius


Location

Small Island East of Madagascar 1800 square km, 1.2 million inhabitants


New Motorways

•Heavy Traffic Jam towards Capital City Centre Port Louis

•Two new motorways/road • Terre Rouge- Verdun •Port-Louis Ring Road


The Terre Rouge/Verdun Road

• Construction started in 2011

• 15.7 km motorway

• Created through a pharaonic site

• Allows drivers to bypass the capital city of Port Louis and its

traffic when they want to join North or South.

• Facilitates access to several towns and villages.

• Cost Rs 4 milliard (134 million USD)

L Chummun Bhujohory 26 Feb 2015 TANZANIA BAM/PTB/TBS

Public Symposium

Inaugurated in Dec 2013


13 months later: 18 January 2015: Cracks found during police patrol

• 25m length cracks

• A few centimeters wide

• Cracks covered the five lanes of motorway


Motorway closed immediately for investigation


A few days later:


Risks of landslides

• Cracks continue to grow and the extent of damage was on a

continuous increase

• Indication of Serious risks of landslides/accidents


Motorway closed for an unknown duration

• (Source: Weekend 25 Jan 2015)

• Given extent of damage motorway closed for an unknown duration to allow time for investigation and repairs


Government decision

• (Source: Le Défi Plus: 24-30 Jan 2015)

• Technical Audit

• Financial Audit


Source: Le Defi Plus 24-30 Jan 2015 Some of the requirements of the audit

• Feasibility study prior to design

• Tests

• Cost

• Variations

• Quality v/s cost aspects


Revelations

• Technical Audit (source Le Defi Plus 31 Jan-06 Feb 2015)

The Contractor COLAS already reported the problem about cracks to the

main Consultant EGIS INTERNATIONAL during construction, early February

2013. The cracks were visible to everybody!

Local Contractor had informed Consultant about the need for rehabilitation

works in a correspondence dated 27 Feb 2013.

Consultant informed Contractor to abandon rehabilitation works


Revelations …cont

• Technical Audit (quoted)

The Contractor ‘acknowledges rejection of drawing for construction of trench

drain at the bottom of embarkment.’

‘Contractor considers that this trench drain was essential for the prevention

of cracks in road surface in future and unable to understand the reason for

this rejection’

The Road Development Authority (parastatal organization and Client to

project) had been very passive.


Newspaper:Le Defi 30 Jan – 06 Feb 2015


Road Development Authority (RDA)

• Source: Week End 01 Feb 2015

• Time bomb

• RDA suspected to have plotted together with Consultant to conceal defects found ten months prior to handing over of site


Non Conforming ‘Standard Penetration’

• L’Agences Japonaise de Coopération Internationale performed soil tests.

• Standard test performed to determine soil resistance

• Scale of 0-50 N

• International Requirements: 30 N minimum

• Experts measured 5N


Revelations

• Technical Audit

Japanese experts has advised to construct the road on piles but

this was not done.

Serious Drainage problems exist


Investigation in progress

Technical audit wrt quality of materials

Samples are being taken from the site and tested. The test results

will be evaluated to see conformance to specifications. One of the

possible causes of failure could also be quality of materials.

Coring up to depths of 30m in process by geotechnical specialists:


Public Symposium

Comments from freelance experts (Source Week End 08 Feb 2015)


Comments from freelance media (Source Week End 08 Feb 2015)

• Another true reality of Mauritius

• Politics dictates technicians

• Posts which Mauritians can do well are given to foreigners

• Demotivation of engineers

• Engineers afraid of political pressure

• Scope of project limited by non technical persons and often impact on PROVISION OF DRAINS


Public Symposium

15 Feb 2015: Motorway closed for three months


• Form initial undetermined period of closure, three months reckoned


22 Feb 2015: Motorway closed for 2015


• The Motorway will not be opened before 2016


The RING ROAD

Aimed at easing traffic to bypass city of Port Louis

Rs 1.2 milliard (40 million USD)

First part Inaugurated in

Feb 2013.


The RING ROAD

Collapse of retaining walls of Ring Road prior to delivery

Never used

Closed already


Pictures of damages visible


The Port-Louis Ring Road

Skeleton in the closets of RDA Previous projects investigation reopened due to change in Government (Dec 2014)


L’Express 22 Jan 2015

• L’effondrement de la Ring Road

• À peine construite, la Ring Road a défrayé la chronique, en février dernier, à cause d’importantes fissures notées sur une partie de la route dans la région de Pailles. Cette route circulaire avait fait l’objet d’une Private Notice Question du leader de l’opposition en avril dernier. Plusieurs facteurs avaient été mis en cause de ce phénomène. L’ex-ministre, Anil Kumar Baichoo, avait évoqué la qualité des matériaux utilisés pour les travaux de remblayage et des infiltrations d’eau.

•


Financial Audit

Source: Le Defi Plus 21-27 Feb 2015 Source: L’Express 21 Feb 2015


Financial Audit


• In general Projects value start low

• Variation works increase value of project to unacceptable amounts

• Amount of Variation Works approved is now under investigations-

Cases of project value have doubled

Meanwhile: Impacts: Serious traffic jam


Meanwhile: Consumer Associations: request for enquiry


• L’Associations des consomateurs de

l’ile Maurice (ACIM) held a press

conference

• Asking for Commission d’Enquête

and Fact Finding Committee

• Tax payers money


Public Symposium

Testing labs Responsibility: Quality of materials used

• Test as per procedures/specification prescribed in project

• Proficiency Testing and Accreditation safeguard our capability

• PT used as a legal tool in such investigations

• THANK YOU PTB/BAM for promoting such exercises!


Thank you


L Chummun Bhujohory - ARSO · L Chummun Bhujohory 26 Feb 2015 TANZANIA BAM/PTB/TBS Public Symposium...

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