The South African White Paper “Creating an Enabling Environment for Reconstruction, Growth and Development in the Construction Industry (1999)”, expresses a vision for public sector delivery aimed at optimising employment opportunities through labour-intensive construction. This can be realised in the delivery of infrastructure through the adoption, where technically and economically feasible, of 

• labour-based methods of construction and manufacture where labour, utilizing hand tools and light equipment, is preferred to the use of heavy equipment for specific activities; and 
• labour-based technologies where there is a shift in balance between labour and equipment, in the way the work is specified and executed for selected works components. 

This cidb practice manual for Implementing Employment Intensive Road Works follows on from the cidb’s guide to best practice for Labour-based Methods and Technologies for Employment- Intensive Construction Works. The latter covers a broad spectrum of construction works. It establishes desirable and appropriate standards, processes, procedures and methods; relating to the design and implementation of labour-based construction technologies, methods for earthworks and for materials manufacture. This first set of guidelines provides sufficient technical information to enable those, responsible for the design of projects, to make confident and informed choices on their use in projects. 

The aim of this series of manuals is twofold, namely to provide a: 

• contractors construction guide, and a 
• designers and supervisors guide for contractors, designers and supervisors involved in the construction and upgrading of roads using labour and light plant.