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I was in Af'stan for almost a year with MSF and over wintered there. I was based at Tarin Kowt, Oruzgan, which is right in the centre of the country so the details I am about to pass on relate to my experience in that location.

As I remember it there was very little rain and what little there was fell over a 6-8 week period in Feb and March. The roads were affected but they remained passable and the main problem was trying to ford swollen rivers as the rains coincided with the start of the melting of the snow in the mountains upstream. We used double cab Toyota Hilux pickups and travelled between Kandahar, Tarin Kowt and another clinic at Derawod. In all the time I was there, and after hundreds of journeys, our vehicles only failed to complete a handful of journeys. If my memory serves correctly then the actual number was 3: Twice because of swollen rivers and once because of deep snow over a pass. Never due to the state of the road. We did have one muppet try and cross a river in spate and had to pull the prat out of the raging torrent with him and his driver sat on the roof as neither could swim but that was due to stupidity and nothing to do with the roads

On the route we took, once out of Kandahar, there was no sealed road and the dirt road was never maintained. It was in poor condition with severe corrugations being the least of the problems. There was one section where there ground conditions were terrible. The sand was so fine it was like talcum powder when dry and a deep slippery slime when wet. A road had been built on a high embankment but as this had been bombed to hell during the Soviet occupation it was impassable on anything but a trials bike. Even conditions as bad as this did not stop the 4x4 Hilux and they always got through. Our vehicles were fitted with winches and we made what looked like huge tent pegs that could be hammered into the ground with 'sledge' hammers and linked together with ropes to form an anchor point to winch from if necessary. We never had to use them. We never had to use the snow chains we made from materials we bought in Tarin Kowt bazaar either. The only time the snow stopped us it was because it had drifted so deep it was half way up the doors of the Hilux and snow chains wouldn't have made any difference.

So. To sum it up:

In my experience of Oruzgan

• Rain is not a massive problem for the roads but it is where they ford rivers.
• 4x4 Hilux pickups with local drivers always managed to get through even when heavily loaded.

The locals will want the best road possible and wont care how much it costs an NGO. Local contractors will try and charge as much as they can to make the road so the first thing to ask is: Is the road needed? Have the locals been moving vehicles around in previous rainy seasons? If so then what, if anything, has changed to make the road necessary? Are different vehicles going to be used? Non all wheel drive trucks would require a better road for instance.

If you judge that road improvements are required then I would have thought that using locally sourced crushed rock would have been the cheapest option. Using a soil strengthening fabric such as 'Terram' would reduce the amount of crushed stone required but can you source it and how much will it cost to buy and get to site? Cement stabilisation of the silty, sandy soil may be possible but the cost may be prohibitive. I'm not able to give price comparisons but someone else may be able to help you on that.

I hope that there is something useful above. Good luck to whoever is out there requiring the info and pass on my best wishes and admiration.

Regards,

Alan Jenkinson

I was in Af'stan for almost a year with MSF and over wintered there. I was based at Tarin Kowt, Oruzgan, which is right in the centre of the country so the details I am about to pass on relate to my experience in that location.

As I remember it there was very little rain and what little there was fell over a 6-8 week period in Feb and March. The roads were affected but they remained passable and the main problem was trying to ford swollen rivers as the rains coincided with the start of the melting of the snow in the mountains upstream. We used double cab Toyota Hilux pickups and travelled between Kandahar, Tarin Kowt and another clinic at Derawod. In all the time I was there, and after hundreds of journeys, our vehicles only failed to complete a handful of journeys. If my memory serves correctly then the actual number was 3: Twice because of swollen rivers and once because of deep snow over a pass. Never due to the state of the road. We did have one muppet try and cross a river in spate and had to pull the prat out of the raging torrent with him and his driver sat on the roof as neither could swim but that was due to stupidity and nothing to do with the roads

On the route we took, once out of Kandahar, there was no sealed road and the dirt road was never maintained. It was in poor condition with severe corrugations being the least of the problems. There was one section where there ground conditions were terrible. The sand was so fine it was like talcum powder when dry and a deep slippery slime when wet. A road had been built on a high embankment but as this had been bombed to hell during the Soviet occupation it was impassable on anything but a trials bike. Even conditions as bad as this did not stop the 4x4 Hilux and they always got through. Our vehicles were fitted with winches and we made what looked like huge tent pegs that could be hammered into the ground with 'sledge' hammers and linked together with ropes to form an anchor point to winch from if necessary. We never had to use them. We never had to use the snow chains we made from materials we bought in Tarin Kowt bazaar either. The only time the snow stopped us it was because it had drifted so deep it was half way up the doors of the Hilux and snow chains wouldn't have made any difference.

So. To sum it up:

In my experience of Oruzgan

• Rain is not a massive problem for the roads but it is where they ford rivers.
• 4x4 Hilux pickups with local drivers always managed to get through even when heavily loaded.

The locals will want the best road possible and wont care how much it costs an NGO. Local contractors will try and charge as much as they can to make the road so the first thing to ask is: Is the road needed? Have the locals been moving vehicles around in previous rainy seasons? If so then what, if anything, has changed to make the road necessary? Are different vehicles going to be used? Non all wheel drive trucks would require a better road for instance.

If you judge that road improvements are required then I would have thought that using locally sourced crushed rock would have been the cheapest option. Using a soil strengthening fabric such as 'Terram' would reduce the amount of crushed stone required but can you source it and how much will it cost to buy and get to site? Cement stabilisation of the silty, sandy soil may be possible but the cost may be prohibitive. I'm not able to give price comparisons but someone else may be able to help you on that.

I hope that there is something useful above. Good luck to whoever is out there requiring the info and pass on my best wishes and admiration.

Regards,

Alan Jenkinson

Alan