M6 Minsk – Grodno – Polish Border (Bruzgi) Road Reconstruction

The improvement of M6 Transit Corridor in the Republic of Belarus, funded by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) – a World Bank Group member, allowed for the reconstruction and upgrading of selected contracts along a 154 kilometre-long section of the M6 road. This project comprised:

• Widening works from a two-lane road to a four-lane road at selected sections of the M6 road between the cities of Minsk and Grodno
• The installation of central crash barriers, side barriers, bus stops, noise barriers, road signs and markings along selected sections of the M6 road
• The improvement of vertical alignments located in selected sections of the M6 road

Rendel provided the independent technical audit as a systematic and independent examination of the road works was carried out by the contractors in charge of the works and the supervision consultants in charge of the associated supervision. This was undertaken to determine whether the organisational, technical, contractual and financial activities and related results complied with the requirements of the contracts and technical specifications, and whether these activities were implemented effectively and were suitable to achieve the project objectives.

The specific objectives of the technical audit included:

• Determine whether the contractors and consultants adequately fulfil their contractual and management obligations
• Identify the quality of the works including the methods of executing the works, the suitability, quality and use of materials, equipment, labour and the quality of the finished work, in relation to the road condition
• Identify any additional remedial works needed with respect to design and work methods
• Identify important lessons and recommendations that could be derived from the implementation of contracts, and from road sector and works management and execution in general.

Principal tasks of Rendel’s team included:

• Visual examination of construction sites including contractor’s and supervisor’s site facilities
• Assessment of overall bearing capacity of the construction layers and final structure of the road (FWD or Benkelman Beam survey)
• Assessment of overall riding quality of the completed sections (IRI survey)
• Inspection of the contractor’s documents and engineer’s records
• Examination of road, drainage and bridge works
• Coring, sampling and laboratory testing