Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation of 9km of Surfaced and Gravel Roads in the Camdeboo National Park

AfriCoast Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd was responsible for the assessment, design and implementation of the rehabilitation and maintenance solutions to 9km of surfaced and gravel roads within the Camdeboo National Park (Valley of Desolation).

The existing access road to the Valley of Desolation was initially surfaced in 1978. It was very old and had deteriorated over time to the point where road maintenance and rehabilitation work became essential to prevent total road failure.  The task was to develop economical viable rehabilitation and maintenance solutions in order to increase the life span of the access roads within the limited available budget.

The upgrade and rehabilitation project proved to be a challenging and diverse project with elements incorporating everything from strict environmental considerations when working within a National Park, to numerous technical challenges ranging from steep gradients in excess of 18%, to limited working space and carefully planned traffic accommodation allowing the full use of the road during construction.

The project challenges were successfully overcome through good team work by all involved. Innovative thinking was sometimes required to overcome unusual site conditions but each time the team rose to the occasion and a solution was always found.