Planning Roads for Darfur, Sudan

The province of Darfur, Sudan, has been in the news for several years because of civil unrest and the suffering of its population. The Darfur region is defined as the triangular area connecting El Fasher, Nyala, and Geneina (on the Chad border). The road system is rudimentary at best. Transport development in Darfur is more difficult than in other regions of the country because of its location at the western extreme of the country and its geologic complexity. Data are presented from the Sudan Road Survey, which is one of the best sources of geotechnical data needed for the planning of low-volume roads in Sudan. The fieldwork took 18 months and covered the central and northern portions of the country, from the Ethiopian border to westernmost Darfur and from the Nuba Mountains southwest of Khartoum to the Egyptian border. The aim was to produce basic engineering data for road design, including estimation of construction and maintenance costs. In addition, the original field logs contain personal commentary that provides insight into the difficulty of conducting field research in Sudan at that time.