Locals decry ‘shoddy’ work on USMID road

Residents of Adjumani Town have raised a red flag over alleged shoddy work on a road constructed under the World Bank-funded Uganda Support for Municipal Infrastructure Development -Additional Funding (USMID- AF) programme.

Rock Trust Contractors Uganda Ltd is upgrading the 3.18km Illa Road to asphalt at the contract sum of Shs10 billion.

The scope of work includes a carriage way, solar powered street lights and walkways on the drainage.

But residents accuse the contractor of not implementing the project as designed.

 “This road is being poorly done, because there is deep excavation, the culverts are installed without a base; this will definitely affect the outcome of the culvert bridge,” Mr Solomon Agwe, a resident, said on Tuesday.

Mr Godfrey Manga, also a resident of Adjumani Town, wondered why the documents for the road construction are not publicised before the work commences.

“We need transparency because the cost of contracts is public information that are to be published 10 days before agreement is signed to give opportunity for appeal where applicable,” Mr Manga said.

The Adjumani Town Council chairman, Mr Lawrence Mangapi, wondered why the contractor was not working on the road bed but simply excavating the bitumen and compacting the road surface. “We need value for money because this road stretch has been bad. So, we expect proper execution of work such that the road can last for years without repairs,” he said.

The town council engineer, Mr Henry Drichi, clarified that the bitumen road surface prematurely peeled off because the road bed was not well compacted with murram.

The acting district engineer, Mr Nick Afayo, who is the project supervisor, said he has no problem availing the contract documents to people who desire to study it.

Mr Afayo explained that the quality control plan is prepared and issued by the contractor which is reviewed periodically and in the quality control plan there are both pretests and tests, which are carried before the execution of works such as murram, certificate for cement and aggregates among others.

In response to the claims by the residents about alleged shoddy works, the Consultant Surveyor for the road project, Ms Angel Nyachwo, said they are strictly following the design that was given to them by the district.

 “People think we have reduced the width of the road. No. We are working within the available space as per the design of the road. We are installing the culverts just like the design guides,” Ms Nyachwo maintained.

Ms Nyachwo explained that whereas the pegging shows a narrow road, it is not reflective of the entire road width as the pegging is strictly reserved for the carriage way which is two lanes and 4.3 meters on both sides which enhances to 8.6 meters wide.

She said the underground piped culvert and the walkway on the drainage are pending as they handle the relocation of water pipes with National Water and Sewerage Corporation and alignments of electricity poles.