Road Design Manual Review

Our Principal Director, Dr Timothy Oketch led the IEK Taskforce on providing feedback on the review and update of the Kenyan Road Design Manuals. The feedback was presented to KENHA/Kenyan Govt and TRL(Transport Research Laboratory) on the draft design manuals at the 2nd Stakeholders Workshop held at Bomas of Kenya from 15th to 18th August. Also present was Mary Abungu, a Transportation Engineer at TIMCON Associates.

Key comments highlighted on the draft manuals were on the following:

1. The importance of data management that informs planning designs, maintenance, and related studies.
2. The use of emerging technologies and allowance for innovation in the manuals, the challenges in their use, and a framework or guidelines that road agencies can follow for further design and analysis.
3. Inclusion of principles of applying the standards and guidance on specific applications of the standards appropriately.
4. The need to Kenyanize some of the guidelines and standards to meet the specific local needs of our roads and road users.
5. The inclusion of urban planners as key personnel in the guidelines where necessary for seamless integration of design plans, urban plans, and spatial planning.
6. The inclusion of PWDs in all the manuals as a critical aspect for inclusivity universal accessibility.