Use of fitness-for-purpose criteria for transport infrastructure products

Abstract

There is a proliferation of various types of non-standard transport infrastructure products where existing standards and specifications do not cater for the specific type of products. Traditionally, the lack of specifications for these products caused the client and user to rely on manufacturer supplied information on the expected benefits of the product. This is not a healthy situation, as different products are then compared without similar parameters to base decisions on selection for specific applications on process. The concept of Agrément has been developed in the traditional built environment field to cater for these non-standard types of products. The objective of Agrément is to develop guidelines for the evaluation and subsequent certification of non-standard products to assess their fitness for- purpose. Therefore, this paper provides background to the Agrément concept, discusses the current evaluation systems being available through Agrément for road infrastructure and reflects on the effect of this fitness-for-purpose system on the growth of sustainable road infrastructure in Africa.