 | |
| Abbreviation | BRRI |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1952, in Accra, Ghana |
| Type | Government Agency |
| Legal status | active |
| Headquarters | Fumesua, Kumasi, Ashanti |
Parent organization | Council for Scientific and Industrial Research |
| Website | www |
The Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI) is a research Institute under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of Ghana. [1] It is based in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. [2] BRRI is a research institute. [3]
The institute was established in 1952 and was known as the West African Building Research Institute in Accra. [1] It was made up of building engineers from Ghana and Nigeria. The institute had a name change in 1960 when the institute's members from Nigeria left to form the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute. [4] This was because Nigeria had gained independence from Britain. It became known as the Building Research Institute of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. The institute relocated to the campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi in 1963. This was to allow the institute's members to lecture at the university due to university under-staffing. [1]
The institute is made up of various professional groupings. They include architects, engineers, planners, quantity surveyors. [1]
In 1964 the government of Ghana expanded the functions of the institution to include road research. The name of the institution was changed to include the new function to the Building and Road Research Institute. [1]
In 1995, the institute moved from the KNUST campus to it present site at Fumesua in Kumasi. [1] [5] The new site which is about 20 kilometres from the institute's former location is called the Kumasi Science City. It houses research institutions in Kumasi. The other institutions include the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) and the Crops Research Institute (CRI). [1]
The institute was established as a research and development organisation in the construction industry with the purposes of offering research and development products and services to the building and road sectors for the development of Ghana. [1]
The institute works on developing alternative building materials that last longer and cost cheaper for the Ghanaian building industry.
The institute in the 1990s begun researching into Pozzolana cement, an alternative cement to the Portland cement for building. [5] Pozzolana cement cost less than Portland cement. In May, 2007, BRRI and PMC Global Incorporated of America signed a contract for the commercial production of Pozzolana. [5] The agreement included PMC offering 150,000 dollars to BRRI for expansion of the pilot plant for the production of the pozzolana at the institute and land acquisition for the building of a plant by PMC for the production process. [5]
BRRI has research collaboration with other state and foreign agencies. In 2007, BRRI and the Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL) of the United Kingdom worked together on a program of national studies in Ghana for two years. The purpose of the collaboration was to research into developing building materials that would benefit both bodies. [6] In 2009, the institutes and its Nigerian counterpart (NBRRI) signed a memorandum of understanding to research into building and road construction materials. [4]
Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement that cures over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most widely used building material. Its usage worldwide, ton for ton, is twice that of steel, wood, plastics, and aluminium combined.
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement mixed with fine aggregate produces mortar for masonry, or with sand and gravel, produces concrete. Concrete is the most widely used material in existence and is behind only water as the planet's most-consumed resource.
Transport in Ghana is accomplished by road, rail, air and water. Ghana's transportation and communications networks are centered in the southern regions, especially the areas in which gold, cocoa, and timber are produced. The northern and central areas are connected through a major road system.
Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th century by Joseph Aspdin, and is usually made from limestone. It is a fine powder, produced by heating limestone and clay minerals in a kiln to form clinker, grinding the clinker, and adding 2 to 3 percent of gypsum. Several types of portland cement are available. The most common, called ordinary portland cement (OPC), is grey, but white portland cement is also available. Its name is derived from its resemblance to portland stone which was quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. It was named by Joseph Aspdin who obtained a patent for it in 1824. His son William Aspdin is regarded as the inventor of "modern" portland cement due to his developments in the 1840s.
Mortar is a workable paste which hardens to bind building blocks such as stones, bricks, and concrete masonry units, to fill and seal the irregular gaps between them, spread the weight of them evenly, and sometimes to add decorative colors or patterns to masonry walls. In its broadest sense, mortar includes pitch, asphalt, and soft mud or clay, as those used between mud bricks, as well as cement mortar. The word "mortar" comes from Old French mortier, "builder's mortar, plaster; bowl for mixing." (13c.).
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), commonly known as UST, Tech or Kwame Tech, is a public university located in Kumasi, Ashanti region, Ghana. The university focuses on science and technology. It is the second public university established in the country, as well as the largest university in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
Sunyani is the capital town of the Bono Region and the Sunyani Municipal of Ghana. Sunyani had a population of 1,208,649 at the 2021 population and housing census. The city consists mainly of the Bonos other tribes.
Joseph Boahen Aidoo is a Ghanaian politician who served as a Member of Parliament for the Amenfi East constituency in the Western Region.
Pozzolans are a broad class of siliceous and aluminous materials which, in themselves, possess little or no cementitious value but which will, in finely divided form and in the presence of water, react chemically with calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) at ordinary temperature to form compounds possessing cementitious properties. The quantification of the capacity of a pozzolan to react with calcium hydroxide and water is given by measuring its pozzolanic activity. Pozzolana are naturally occurring pozzolans of volcanic origin.
Joseph William Swain de Graft-Johnson was a Ghanaian engineer, academic and politician. He served as Vice-President of Ghana from 1979 to 1981.
Roman concrete, also called opus caementicium, was used in construction in ancient Rome. Like its modern equivalent, Roman concrete was based on a hydraulic-setting cement added to an aggregate.
Sandcrete is a yellow-white building material made from a binder, sand in a ratio of circa 1:8, and water. Sometimes other ingredients may be added to reduce the amount of expensive Portland cement such as pozzolanas and rice husk ash. Sandcrete is similar but weaker than mortar, for which the ratio is circa 1:5. Soil cement and landcrete are similar materials but use other types of soil and hydraform blocks which are compressed, stabilized, earth blocks.
Mahamudu Bawumia is a Ghanaian economist and former central banker who serves as the 5th Vice President of Ghana in the 4th Ghanaian Republic. He assumed office on 7th January 2017 as Vice President of Ghana.
The KNUST Department of Planning (DOP) is one of the academic departments at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. It is under the KNUST College of Architecture and Planning. The department offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the award of a degree. It is the only institution in Ghana professionally recognized by its government to train personnel to promote, coordinate and manage development at the national and sub-national levels.
The Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) is a Government of Nigeria institute responsible for researching and developing road and building materials for the Nigerian building industry. The institute is under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology of Nigeria.
Fumesua is a town in Ghana. It is 15 kilometres from the centre Kumasi. It is a dormitory town. It serves mainly as a residential areas for workers in various companies in Kumasi. The town also host the Building and Road Research Institute of Ghana.
Anwomaso is a town in Ghana. It is 15 kilometres from the centre of Kumasi. It is a dormitory town. It serves mainly as a residential area for workers in various companies in Kumasi. It served as a pilot study town for the Building and Road Research Institute of Ghana on termite infestation.
The Kumasi Technical University, formerly known as Kumasi Polytechnic, is a public tertiary institution in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
Esi Awuah is a Ghanaian academic and former vice chancellor of the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Sunyani, Ghana.
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