Four members of Omaha District traveled to Tanzania in June to inspect existing roads and bridges for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). The team members were Danny Klima, civil engineer, Mark Huckle, civil engineer, Lyle Peterson, structural engineer and Luke Wallace, biologist.
MCC is a federal agency that provides developmental assistance to qualifying countries that rule justly, invest in their people, and encourage economic freedom. MCC has three interagency agreements with the Corps, which provides expertise in environmental, engineering and other related services.
President George Bush and Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete signed a five-year, $698 million MCC compact last February for the United Republic of Tanzania. The grant is intended for projects that will reduce poverty, stimulate economic growth, and increase household incomes through investments in transportation, energy, and water.
The projects included upgrading more than 200 miles of dirt roads to Tanzania Trunk Road standards. During the rainy season from December to April, the roads are impassible. During the dry season, trucks and buses traveling on the roads create large clouds of dust.
The Omaha District team, along with representatives from MCC and the Tanzanian Road Agency, flew from Dar es Salaam to the city of Songea in southwestern Tanzania. The team traveled for seven days in 4x4 Land Cruisers inspecting roads and bridges, making environmental assessments, and meeting with regional government officials.
“The roads we traveled were mostly unimproved dirt with a few short sections of paved two-lane road through towns,” Klima said. “The roads are used as much for pedestrian traffic as for commercial trucks and small buses. Few people owned cars and many didn’t even have a bicycle. The bicycles we did see were for carrying loads, often a huge load of firewood.”
Kikwete has acknowledged that Tanzania has an inadequate transportation network to meet the needs of the country’s widely dispersed population and that roads are essential for commerce and trade.
An improved road system would connect communities with schools and health clinics, and reduce transport costs of local farmers.
“In addition to reviewing the construction plans, we also conducted a social impact assessment,” Wallace said. “I was there to review the impact to wetlands, vegetation, fish, and wildlife to make sure that they had considered all the factors, including the impact of large camps for road workers.”
The MCC projects will rehabilitate and upgrade three trunk roads. It is estimated that the compact will benefit about 4.8 million Tanzanians, either directly or indirectly, upon project completion.
After returning, the Omaha members prepared a due diligence report certifying that design plans were sufficient for the type of road construction and terrain.