Adapting road procurement to climate conditions

Iimi, Atsushi; Benamghar, Radia
World Bank
Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 6029
April 2012

The world's climate is changing. It is well recognized that technical standards and project specifications of public infrastructure have to be adjusted, depending on the climate. However, it is less recognized that the public infrastructure procurement also needs to be adjusted. This paper examines a particular case of rural road procurement in Nepal. Severe weather conditions, such as heavy rains and storms, are likely to interrupt civil works and wash away unpaved or gravel roads. It is found that heavy precipitation causes delays, but not cost overruns. The paper also shows that budgetary efficiency and credibility could be improved by taking climate conditions into account. If future precipitation were anticipated by backward-looking expectations, many large project delays could be avoided. If the autoregressive precipitation model were used, the vast majority of the observed delays could be eliminated.

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Optimizing the size of public road contracts

Iimi, Atsushi; Benamghar, Radia
World Bank
Policy Research working paper no. WPS 6028
April 2012

Procurement packaging has important effects on not only the bidders' bidding behavior, but also contractors' performance. By changing the size of public contracts, procurers can encourage (or discourage) market competition and improve contract performance, avoiding unnecessary cost overruns and project delays. In practice, there is no single solution about how to package public contracts. With procurement data from road projects in Nepal, this paper examines the optimal size of road contracts in rural areas. The optimum varies depending on policy objectives. To maximize the bidder participation, the length of road should be about 11 kilometers. To minimize cost overruns and delays, the contracts should be much larger at 17 and 21 kilometers, respectively. Compared with the current procurement practices, the findings suggest that procurers take more advantage of enlarging road packages, although contracts that are too large may increase the risk of discouraging firms from participating in public tenders.

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Ingeniería de caminos rurales: Guía de campo para las mejores prácticas de gestión de caminos rurales

Gordon Keller & James Sherar
US Forest Service International Programs -Brochure-
Enero 2008

Imagen de la publicación

El objetivo fundamental de esta guía es poder ayudar a ingenieros, planificadores, especialistas ambientales y administradores de caminos a tomar buenas decisiones, proteger el ambiente, y construir buenos caminos de bajo volumen. Los aspectos claves que deberían tomarse en cuenta durante la planificación de un proyecto de camino son los cambios o los impactos negativos que pueden inducirse en una cierta región por la presencia del camino, los cuales pueden resultar importantes a la vez que irreversibles o que pueden ser difíciles de mitigar. Por lo tanto, habrá necesidad de analizar la rentabilidad a largo plazo de un proyecto de camino, en lo que se refiere a costos en los aspectos sociales, ambientales y fiscales.

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Community-Based Routine Maintenance of Roads by Women's Groups: Guide for Communications Bureaus

Asian Development Bank
July 2011

This guide describes how to implement a system of community-based rural road maintenance involving groups of women, specifically in Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China.

It was written as part of a pilot project supported by the Gender and Development Cooperation Fund of the Asian Development Bank. This pilot project aims to show that women can effectively participate in the maintenance of rural roads, resulting in improved road conditions and better access for those who rely on roads, and in creating employment opportunities and incomes for women. It also serves to identify specific issues in the participation of women in rural road maintenance, while defining solutions that facilitate their involvement.

This guide is complemented by a manual that was developed under the same Gender and Development Cooperation Fund pilot project.

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Community-Based Routine Maintenance of Roads by Women's Groups: Manual for Maintenance Groups

Asian Development Bank
July 2011

This manual is aimed at women's maintenance groups responsible for the routine maintenance of rural roads (including earthen, gravel, and stone-paved roads). It details the different activities to be carried out by the maintenance groups to keep the road in good condition by preventing damage and carrying out minor repairs. It explains the planning and organization of the work, as well as how county communications bureaus responsible for these roads contract the groups.

This manual was written as part of a pilot project supported by the Gender and Development Cooperation Fund of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). This pilot project aims to show that women can effectively participate in the maintenance of rural roads, resulting in improved road conditions and better access for those that rely on roads, and to create employment opportunities and incomes for the women themselves. It also identifies specific issues regarding the participation of women in rural road maintenance, defining solutions for facilitating their participation. These solutions are to be incorporated in a project on rural road maintenance in Dehong Prefecture to be financed by ADB.

This manual is complemented by a guide that was developed under the same Gender and Development Cooperation Fund pilot project.

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Actividad rural competitiva: Asociaciones de mantenimiento vial (AMVIS)

Plan de sostenibilidad: 2006-2008
USAID Bolivia
Octubre 2006

Este Plan de Sostenibilidad tiene como objetivo:
Apoyar el desarrollo socio-económico y la competitividad regional, a través de la consolidación de un Sistema de Mantenimiento Vial Participativo y Sostenible, que asegure el mantenimiento eficiente y oportuno de los caminos.

Este objetivo no se limita a la sostenibilidad de la AMVI, pues esta no es un fin en si mismo, sino que considera el mantenimiento de la red vial como un elemento estratégico para el desarrollo socio-económico y la competitividad de la región.

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Rural Road Investment Efficiency: Lessons from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Uganda

Authors: Raballand, Gael; Macchi, Patricia
World Bank
Directions in development infrastructure
March 2010

This book was written because at the time when Development Partners focus especially on rural mobility, it is worth trying to know how to achieve better aid effectiveness in rural transport. So far, most Development Partners and governments in SSA have relied on two overarching assumptions, which have led to massive road investments: (i) most households in rural areas in Africa are not connected to markets and therefore need a road passable for a truck (all the more as they are remote), (ii) roads with high level of service are crucial to achieve high economic impact. We demonstrate in this book that these assumptions may be questioned in many cases in SSA. Based on data collection from various sources in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Uganda, we demonstrate that from a cost-benefit perspective, the additional cost of extending an all-weather road 2 more km to the farmer??s door outweigh the benefits in most cases. Therefore, a one size fits all approach, such as achieving the Rural Access Index, is not wishful from an aid effectiveness perspective. We should realize that a seven-meter road may not be required in most rural areas in SSA. Some pilots should be supported locally to potentially meet the demand for Intermediate Means of Transport (although any success may not be replicable to another region or country). The last mile should not be a road for a truck but the secondary network, which link secondary cities, should be in good condition (paved or unpaved) to enable truck fleet efficiency and competition. Finally, donor coordination is a must to avoid for example the rehabilitation of rural roads not connected to passable secondary roads.

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Performance-Based Maintenance Contracts for Subnational Roads: Experience from Latin America

TRB
2009

Medina Flintsch, Alejandra
Email: ale@vtti.vt.edu
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
Flintsch, Gerardo W
Email: GFlintsch@vtti.vt.edu
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
Bennett, Christopher R
Email: cbennett2@worldbank.org
World Bank
Crispino, Maurizio
Email: maurizio.crispino@polimi.it
Politecnico di Milano

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2009 Paper #09-1121

The outsourcing of road maintenance to micro- and small enterprises under performance-based contracts (PBCs) has been recognized as an effective approach to rural road maintenance in many developing countries. This approach links payments for the management and/or maintenance of pavements with the contractor successfully meeting or exceeding certain clearly defined minimum performance standards. A review of projects undertaken by the World Bank found that, if structured correctly, these projects can effectively maintain pavements, while at the same time, contributing to improved social welfare and local economic conditions. However, to be successful it is important that the legal and practical elements of the projects be properly structured. The paper presents the findings in terms of the lessons learned from PBCs with micro-enterprises, and the challenges faced to ensure success. It gives specific recommendations in legal, administrative, and technical areas on steps that can be taken by agencies to facilitate PBCs using small or micro-enterprises.

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Explaining high transport costs within Malawi - bad roads or lack of trucking competition?

Lall, Somik V.; Wang, Hyoung; Munthali, Thomas
Policy Research working paper No 5133
World Bank
November 2009

What are the main determinants of transport costs: network access or competition among transport providers? The focus in the transport sector has often been on improving the coverage of "hard" infrastructure, whereas in reality the cost of transporting goods is quite sensitive to the extent of competition among transport providers and scale economies in the freight transport industry, creating monopolistic behavior and circular causation between lower transport costs and greater trade and traffic. This paper contributes to the discussion on transport costs in Malawi, providing fresh empirical evidence based on a specially commissioned survey of transport providers and spatial analysis of the country’s infrastructure network. The main finding is that both infrastructure quality and market structure of the trucking industry are important contributors to regional differences in transport costs. The quality of the trunk road network is not a major constraint but differences in the quality of feeder roads connecting villages to the main road network have significant bearing on transport costs. And costs due to poor feeder roads are exacerbated by low volumes of trade between rural locations and market centers. With empty backhauls and journeys covering small distances, only a few transport service providers enter the market, charging disproportionately high prices to cover fixed costs and maximize markups.

website

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Guatemala - Status of projects in execution (SOPE) - FY09 : Latin America and the Caribbean region

World Bank
October 2009

The Status of Projects in Execution (SOPE) report for FY09 provides information on all International Bank and Rural Development (IBRD)/International Development Association (IDA) projects that were active on June 30, 2009. The report is intended to bridge the gap in information available to the public between the project appraisal document, disclosed after the Bank approves a project, and the implementation completion report, disclosed after the project closes. In addition to the project progress description, the FY09 SOPE report contains project level comparisons of disbursement estimates and actual disbursements, and a table showing the loan/credit/grant amount and disbursements to date for all active projects.

Projects with transport components:
Support Rural Econ.Dev. Program
p. 4

Second rural and maintenance roads project
p. 10

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Revising the roads investment strategy in rural areas : an application for Uganda

Policy Research Working Paper 5036
World Bank
September 2009

Based on extensive data collection in Uganda, this paper demonstrates that the rural access index, as defined today, should not be a government objective because the benefit of such investment is minimal, whereas achieving rural accessibility at less than 2 kilometers would require massive investments that are not sustainable. Taking into account the fact that plot size is limited on average to less than 1 hectare, a farmer’s transport requirement is usually minimal and does not necessarily involve massive investments in infrastructure. This is because most farmers cannot fully load a truck or pay for this service and, even if productivity were to increase significantly, the production threshold would not be reached by most individual farmers. Therefore, in terms of public policy, maintenance of the existing rural roads rather than opening new roads should be given priority; the district feeder road allocation maintenance formula should be revised to take into account economic potential and, finally, policy makers should devote their attention to innovative marketing models from other countries where smallholder loads are consolidated through private-based consolidators.

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Argentina - Additional Financing for the Provincial Road Infrastructure Project

World Bank
July 2009

Project Information Document(PID)- Concept Stage

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Training course on the design and construction of low volume rural roads

Research for Development
June 2009

The objective of the project is the effective transfer of appropriate knowledge on the selection, design, construction and management of Low Volume Rural Roads (LVRRs) to provincial and district engineers operating under the Cambodian National Decentralisation and De-concentration (NCDD) programme. The NCDD is investing in rural access and rural roads and is consequently interested acquiring knowledge relevant to improving the performance of these investments. Training Module 1 was conducted from 4th to 7th May 2009: LVRR paving and surfacing training. This is a 4 day course based on the materials developed for DF 55 in Vietnam, but amended and upgraded to suit Cambodian rural infrastructure needs and environments. Documents attached are course details and summary, and presentations for the course. The presentations are:

- 1: LVRR Principles
- 2: Surfacing and Paving Options
- 3: Pavement Option Selection and Design
- 4: LVRR Pavement Construction
- 5: Environmentally Optimized Design
- 6: Desk Exercise.

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Economic Evaluation for Low Volume Rural Road Upgrading

SEACAP 19. Technical Paper No. 5
Research for Development
2009

This document aims to identify the way forward for developing practical procedures to evaluate and justify the upgrading of unsealed LVRRs in Cambodia. The role of economic evaluation is summarised and existing procedures are briefly reviewed as to their usefulness within the Cambodian rural infrastructure environment. Knowledge gaps are identified and a Concept Note for taking the research forward is attached as an Appendix.

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Low volume rural road upgrade options

SEACAP 19. Technical Paper No. 4.
Research for Development
2008

Cambodia requires a cost-effective and sustainable approach to rural infrastructure improvement. There is an increasing recognition that it is a major challenge to provide and maintain all weather rural access on a sustainable basis with the limited available resources. Upgrade options are assessed in relation to key construction, performance and sustainability criteria and to some typical Cambodian road environments. Proposals for addressing the identified knowledge and application gaps are contained in a Concept Note summarizing a possible way forward.

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Performance monitoring of low volume rural roads in Northwest Laos PDR

J. R. Cook and B. Meksavanh
SEACAP 17/002
Research for Development
2009

The performance monitoring was a logical and necessary continuation of the main SEACAP 17 trial programme and was concerned primarily with the collection and analysis of pavement performance information from trial road sections. This project (termed SEACAP 17.02) was a one-off data collection and assessment exercise that should be repeated with sufficient regularity so as to enable valuable lessons to contribute to the sustainable development of the Lao PDR rural infrastructure.

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