Preamble

Whereas there is always a slight variation when comparing the unit costs of individual inputs
like Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) concrete, Asphalt Concrete Surfacing, road signage,
earthworks and others of both Highways and Urban roads, Urban roads tend to always have a
way higher cost per kilometre of road than highways mostly because the roads are in urban
settings with special requirements as described here in.

Further note that even though Highways have urban sections along the road length, the road
is constructed predominantly in rural areas and this significantly lowers the cost compared to
USMID roads that are wholly constructed within Municipalities and Cities.

Requirements for insurance, Community Socio-mobilisation and Traffic Management:

Urban roads are roads constructed in urban areas and thus there is a high population density
which comes with an increased number of road users and Project Affected Persons (PAPs).
These increase the requirements of Insurance in case for inevitable damage to properties near
the site like buildings and also the requirements for traffic and community management
increase and these translate into an increase in Project cost

Drainage Requirements and limitations of space

Often times on highways roads are constructed with numerous alternatives of drainage that
are low cost which are not very applicable to urban roads especially the ones done under
USMID in more populated and developed Municipalities. Highways with predominantly
rural sections have options including; directly disposing water into the road reserve which is
constrained by space limitations for urban roads, grassed earth channels, non-grouted and
grouted stone pitching, open concrete drains and on very rare situations covered lined open
drains.

Because of space limitations in Municipalities, roads constructed under USMID and other
Town roads are constructed with covered lined drains or underground reinforced concrete
culverts so that the space utilised for drainage can form part of the walkway provisions for
pedestrian traffic.

High concentration of Traffic introducing need for separation of pedestrian and

motorised traffic
Highways because often times are passing through rural settlements, shoulders are provided
outside the Traffic Travel Lanes for cycling and pedestrian traffic and there is often times no
significant requirement for separate provisions for pedestrians.

Overtime, there has been a significant increase in cyclists on urban roads and thus roads are
often times constructed with cycling lanes in towns and this coupled with the high
concentration of traffic in Municipalities, there is a very big requirement for separation of
motorised and non-motorised traffic. Thus, USMID roads are constructed with raised
walkways to separate pedestrian and motorised traffic. These extra provisions lead to
increased construction costs.
Provisions for road lighting
The target of the USMID Project is to improve the livelihoods in Municipalities and facilitate
economic development. Because the roads constructed are mostly within Municipalities
which have business running almost for 24 hours, there was a requirement to provide road
lighting to facilitate business and also for security purposes.

The additional road lighting requirements lead to increase in the average cost of the roads

Utilities
Unlike highways, the roads constructed in Municipalities are grossly affected by utility
relocation costs. These greatly increase the cost of roads as the costs of relocation of the
utilities are born by the Projects.