QUELIMANE-NICOADALA-NAMACURRA ROAD

1.0 Project Site Appreciation

1.1 Introduction.
The site appreciation visit was carried out on 15 March 2011 by Scott Wilson Mozambique Lda.
The inspection was commenced at Quelimane in the morning of fine warm weather,
continuously interrupted with light brief rain, ending late afternoon in Namacurra. Below is a
summary of observations made.

1.2 BACKGROUND.
The road Quelimane, Nicoadala, to Namacurra is due for rehabilitation.
Quelimane is the provincial capital of Zambezia and also has a huge Sea Port hence
the aforementioned road is an important transportation route for cargo. Nicoadala to
Namacurra is part of the N1 Highway.
The road is wholly situated in the Zambezia province and despite the first 36km having
been repaired in 2009, signs of degeneration are abound.
In this report 0+000km was taken in Quelimane , at the point where the road coming in
from Nicoadala splits into a Y junction. The unrefined co-ordinates for this assumed
start of project is: WGS 84, 276 980m Easting and 8 023 804m Northing.
The road starts off as a 9.4m wide kerbed road up to chainage 1+450km when the kerb
ends. At chainage 5+200km the road changes to two 3.2m lanes with roughly 1.25m
surfaced shoulders and 0.75m gravel shoulders which changes again at 7+600km.
Here onwards begins two 3.2m lanes with 1m surfaced shoulders both sides and
roughly 1m un-surfaced shoulders on both sides as well.
The section up to Nicoadala, chainage 36+600km, is badly infested with potholes and
damaged surfacing edges. The remainder of the road is not as bad.
The road project was assumed to end at chainage 68+150km in Namacurra at a small
13.5m long 3 span bridge whose WGS84 co-ordinates were recorded as 209 440
Easting and 8 064 673 Northing. From here into Namacurra village the road has
recently been rehabilitated.
There is one major junction, 36+610km, the one to Caia. There are several minor
junctions within Quilimane town and others along the road were noted at 8+090km,
10+400km, 20+550km, 21+600km, 35+000km, 35+500km, 36+050km, 37+500km,
37+700km, 38+700km, 38+000km, 38+900km, 39+540km, 39+900km, 40+000km,
41+500km,and 47+800km.
The road was constructed using crushed stone base material and the whole route does
not seem to have suitable road building materials.
The section up to Nicoadala falls wholly in a flood plain and drainage is a real
challenge. In this section the road is built on an embankment averaging 1.5 to 2.5m in
height.
After Nicoadala the flood plain somewhat improves and the road is still mainly built on
embankments roughly 1.2m high.
Road maintenance generally lacks significantly with bush clearing, carriageway remarking, bridge guard-rail repairs, shoulders re-gravelling and pothole repairs having
been long over-due at the time of visit.
The road riding surface is particularly rough between 47+500km and 49+300km.
1.3 Drainage and associated structures.

8 bridges and 15 box and pipe culverts were enumerated on this road. It is
very probable that a number of culverts were missed in the count due to bush
and grass cover.

Most of the bridges are in need of minor repairs like replacing worn out iron
or concrete guard rails, scouring repairs, and bush clearing in and around
the river channels. Despite this observation all the bridges do not show
external signs of structural distress.
All the bridges provide minimum 6.4m traffic lanes and 0.8m walkways.
The culverts do not have headwalls at road level or markers on the side of
road. This makes them extremely difficult to locate.
Below is a summary of the bridges:
Bridge
location(km+meters)

No. Of Spans

Length of
Bridge(m)

17+500
26+750
37+350
42+650
45+550
65+350
66+180
68+150

9
3
3
3
2
7
4
3

60
73.5
13.5
13.5
9
31.5
80
13.5

Approximate
Channel
width(m)
68
80
15
15
12
36
100
19

1.4 Alignment

The road horizontal and vertical alignment is generally satisfactory.

The vertical alignment is predominantly very flat with very few sharp
vertical curves.
There are a few small radii horizontal curves between 4+500km and
22+000km but few appear to present any hazard to traffic.
.
1.5 Materials for Construction
The terrain and vegetation surrounding the road under review indicate that
procurement of road construction materials is a major challenge.
A few borrow pits were located along the road between Nicoadala and
Namacurra but the material extracted is the fine grey sandy materials
which require chemical modification if used for road construction.
Water may be extracted from the rivers along the road but very small sand
deposits could be seen on the river beds during the site visit.
The existing road has a crushed stone base layer.
1.6 Resettlement and compensation issues
There is a power line running parallel to the road between Quelimane and
Nicoadala about 10m RHS from road centre line which may require moving
in the event of a road widening.
Two water mains run along the road on the RHS mostly over 15m from the
centre line but in some cases like chainage 18+800km, 37+150km,
38+100km and 41+050km manholes were seen as close as 9m from the
road centre line. The water pipeline crosses the road at chainage
41+050km through a pipe culvert and seizes to run along the road from this
point.
The first 4.5 km goes through an urban residential area. Thereafter sparse
settlements exist along the route but mostly outside the road reserve.
However rice fields are seen alongside the toes of road embankment
between chainage 5+500 and 34+500km.

At 13+200km is a graveyard with graves as close as 2.5m within the road

edges. Another graveyard is at 61+900km and is about 8m from the road
edge.
1.7 Traffic level
The level of traffic on the day of inspection can be described as medium to
low. It would be prudent to carry out a full traffic count to determine the
accurate traffic volumes and configuration.
There was an exceptionally high volume of pedestrian and cycle traffic
between 0+000km and 5+000km. The same was noticed between
33+500km and 37+400km.
1.8 Road Signs
The road signs are a little below standard and require upgrading and
augmentation.
Carriageway markings now show signs of fading and most reflector studs
used in conjunction with these markings have disappeared.
Most of the road signs are now hidden behind grass and bushes and no
longer serve their intended purpose.
1.9 Photo Summary
Below is a photo gallery of selected pictures to assist in the visual appreciation of
the project site in review:

CH 0+000 QUILIMANE TOWN - Y JUNCTION .

CH 0+230 RESIDENTIAL AREA .

CH 1+080 MARKET PLACE .

CH 2+600 ROAD VIEW .

CH4+700 ROAD CURVE. JUST OUTSIDE TOWN .

CH5+850 RUBBISH DUMP SITE .

CH9+040 Typical sharp curve and road embankment.

CH 10+400 Typical junction/settlements .

CH 12+500 Pothole manifest, un-kept edges .

CH13+200 GRAVEYARD 2.5M TO ROAD EDGE - RHS.

CH17+500 Bridge with water mains affixed.

WATER MAINS MANHOLE CH18+800 .

CH20+550 JUNCTION, BUILDINGS CLOSE TO ROAD.

CH 21+600. Junction. Note erosion.

CH 26+750 BRIDGE. With water pipeline affixed to underside.

CH26+750 BRIDGE. RUSTY GUARD RAILS. Note water pump-house on RHS.

CH27+900 RAILWAY CROSSING. Note sandy deposits.

CH30+400 Typical road embankment, rice fields, flat lands.

CH32+900 Repairs to cracks due to settlement.

ch34+050 Railway crossing, NICOADALA .

CH35+000 Y-JUNCTION .

CH35+300 MARKET PLACE .

CH36+600 CAIA JUNCTION , MARKET PLACE.

CH37+100 ROAD WEIGHBRIDGE.

CH37+350 BRIDGE .

CH 39+540 Entrance to Timber Sawmill.

ch41+100 133 kVA Power line crossing.

CH 41+000 Water line crossing road. Manhole in vicinity.

CH41+500 JUNCTION, MARKET PLACE.

CH42+650 Small Bridge showing scouring.

CH45+550 Small Bridge. Exposed re-bar, broken guard rails.

CH48+500 Light Bleeding.

CH58+100 Borrow pit, road view.

CH65+350 7 span bridge .

ch66+180 4 span bridge .

CH 68+150 BRIDGE. END OF PROJECT .