Funding from the Royal Society will support a 3-year collaborative project between the University of Nottingham, UK, and Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
This initiative aims to advance sustainable road construction methods in South Africa, focusing on improving mobility and furthering inclusive economic growth in rural communities.
In South Africa, nearly 80 per cent of the road network consists of rural and low-volume roads. These roads face significant challenges, including limited materials for construction, low funding, and less maintenance compared to highways.
The project, led by Dr Anand Sreeram (UoN) and Dr. Elaine Goosen (Stellenbosch) will look at how some of these issues could be addressed by utilising locally sourced waste materials for road construction, creating a sustainable circular economy targeted at creating opportunities for small businesses and skills development in rural areas.
Developed countries, such as the UK, have successfully implemented circular economy frameworks in construction, utilising digital tools to manage material flows and overcome key market barriers, enhancing transparency and long-term value.
This research aims to bring these techniques to South African rural road applications. The project will combine the expertise of UK and South African partners in pavement engineering, waste recycling, digitisation, and circular economy to develop new methods.
The standardisation of such technology is expected to enhance rural mobility and economic participation in rural communities by allowing new businesses to enter the material supply and construction value chains.
This will ultimately help reduce poverty, enhance the quality of life for residents in these regions and provide a model that can be adopted in other developing countries.
The main objective of the project is to enable the development of rural infrastructure using technological innovation to overcome local barriers and enable social mobility.
"We are very excited to start this initiative as it is not often that we get to work on projects that can have such direct impact on improving the lives of people."
