Management of social sustainability and quality aspects of rural road construction in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Though the rural roads are the final link of the transportation system, they provide the most critical connection between the city and the rural community. Further, the quality of rural roads is a significant factor to be maintained. On the other hand, maintaining quality has both positive and negative impact on social sustainability, which has been identified as one pillar of sustainability. Apart from these facts, there is a lack of research studies regarding the social sustainability and quality of rural roads at the construction stage. Although the term “social” was introduced into sustainability lately, quality is an intangible aspect. Therefore, this research was conducted to address the research gap in managing the effects of the quality of rural road construction on social sustainability. Data for the research was collected through a literature review, semi-structured interviews with conducting among fifteen selected relevant professionals of the project and an industrial document review from the documents maintained by the contractor. The research attempts to show what effects can be identified and the strategies that can be followed to overcome those effects. For that, ten social sustainability factors and fifteen quality aspects of the construction phase has taken. According to the geographical condition of the selected project area, the number of effects related to each social sustainability factor was different. Further, it was found that few quality aspects impact multiple social sustainability factors. The findings of this research prove that both accessibility and safety-related effects have been encountered critically while achieving the selected quality aspects of the rural roads during the construction stage.