§ Mr. Warrenasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will explain the need for the Road Research Laboratory to conduct a further study in Ethiopia on the characteristics of motor vehicles operating over unpaved roads and the estimated cost and time-scale of this proposed study.
§ Mrs. HartI have been asked to reply.
Research, funded by my Ministry, was carried out in Ethiopia by the Overseas Unit of the Transport and Road Research Laboratory as part of a larger international study to improve the quality of decisions on investment in transport in the developing countries. Further work in this field in Ethiopia is unlikely.
The main aim of the study was to assemble the necessary data in mathematical terms so that the findings can be used universally by planning engineers to design roads, both paved and unpaved, which will reduce the total costs of operating vehicles on them. The study provided a method which will benefit British consultants in bidding for work overseas, and has been quite inadequately reported in the Press.