A PhD candidate at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Keith Nare, has been appointed South African National Roads Agency Limited’s (Sanral’s) first ever research associate at the entity’s materials lab in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape.
Nare’s role at the lab is to perform a role linking academia and the industry, with his responsibilities spanning internal research on bituminous binders to the implementation of the South African performance grade bitumen specifications.
Sanral Southern Region materials specialist Sean Strydom pointed out that Nare’s position at Sanral involves rheological testing, which is a highly specialised testing method using high-end testing equipment of which just a handful exist in the country.
“The training of persons who operate Dynamic Shear Rheometer and Bending Beam Rheometer [equipment] is done by the international suppliers of the equipment. We were lucky that Nare, during his studies, had already received in-depth training in the use of the testing equipment,” Strydom noted.
The test data Nare is generating are expected to assist Sanral in ensuring that the entity’s new performance specification of bitumen is best suited to South African road conditions. The data is being generated by testing bitumen samples from Sanral’s construction sites across the Eastern Cape.