28331 NUMBER 39 *E Precis Operations Evaluation Department February 1993 Maintaining Rural Roads The maintenance of road infrastructure Findings has been a concern of the Bank for at Definitions least 25 years. It features prominently Limited level of Bank support: The in the Bank's decisions on road sector Bans two policy paper-2The Rural road maintenance lending, and in most sector operations. Highway Maintenance Problem", 1979, comprises three t)pes of actixities: Even so, road maintenance in many and "Road Deterioration in Developing countries has remained very poor, and Countries: Causes and Remedies", Routine maintenance: local the costs of necessary rehabilitation for 1988-focus on inter-urban roads and repair of roadways and upkeep of existing rural roads in developing largely exclude rural roads. In relation drainage, roadside cleaning and countries could be $2.5-5 billion a year to total road transport lending and the like. in the 1990s. overall needs for rural road construc- tion and maintenance, the volume of *Periodic maintenance: Following a case study in the lending for rural roads seems small. regravelling of unpa,ed and Philippines, a new OED review exam- Except in smaller countries, particularly resealing of paved roads. ines some 85 transport and agricultural in Africa, the Bank has so far reached a Rehabilitation: works necessarv projects with rural road construction or only fractions of total rural road to restore roads to their original maintenance components, completed in networks. state, induding structural strength 1986-1990. It analyzes the Bank's contributions to rural road maintenance Bias against maintenance: In assist- Routine and periodic mainte- and their results. Investing in new ing rural roads the Bank has given nance are the least costl% and an roads has tended to preempt adequate much more attention to major works- effective form of upkeep. Though spending on maintenance, even though that is, new construction, improvement the scope and mix of specific road economic and social benefits from and rehabilitation-than to routine and works recommended under maintenance may have been higher. periodic maintenance (R&PM). A specific conditions can be complex. The study recommends a more balanced better strategy would have given a good maintenance strategy relies and systematic approach. priority to maintenance over network as much as possible on routine and expnsin nd pgadig,andtoperiodic maintenance (R&PM), i ural roads serve mainly local R&PM over rehabilitation (see box on R transport. Most are engineered definitions). The emphasis on major earth and gravel roads carrying little works also tended to reduce Bank motorized traffic and often much coverage of rural road networks. contained provisions for verifying pedestrian and animal traffic. They are compliance. Sanctions were rarely administered by national, provincial, Design of maintenance components: imposed for noncompliance. and local government works agencies. Most Bank assistance for R&PM was Typically, the institutions responsible narrowly conceived, often being are weak, lacking enough equipment, confined to financing of equipment, Rural Roads Maintenance: A know-how and budgetary resources. rather than supporting full-fledged Re4ew of Completed World Bank Rural road networks, which in most R&PM programs. And though most Opertions, Report No. 10794, countries are at least five times the projects contained covenants conmit- June 1992. OED reports are length of inter-urban road networks, ting borrowers to adequate mainte- available to Bank Executive Direc- are major public assets. But their nance or maintenance-related actions tors and staff from the Internal condition limits the realization of the after project investments-typically for Doitments Unit and from Regional economic and social benefits for which whole networks, not just the Bank- Inftwmation Servims Centers. they were built. financed parts-few covenants Recommendations l gFrameworkfor maintenance assistance: The Bank needs to develop explicit maeqat main npolicies toward ae mate ce of btrural roads and the provision of r temaintenance assistance. It should otprepare a sequel, specific to rural roads, io to its 1988 maintenance policy paper. contnuig fQug tw rt"lrods awnlaw Agedos ned t beThis exercise should start by taking pnneinventories of rural roads and their lacondition, and fully documenting the procurrent maintenance situation in legth a n countries that are active borrowers for leading aid agency in th s F roads. Country-specific strategies ro should be developed on that basis. ebudgets are inadequate, funds are inadequate maintenance as a mjr issue, inefficiently spent, and equipment but remedi action u s slow The availabilit is liited Road cond agenculture proiects concentrated ons are not systematically mon The Bank should use, in all projects almost exclusively on road construc- tored. Overall ctitions a nt with rural road maintenance compo- tion. setter maintenance was a goal saisfctry. nents, appropriate procedures for in the two transport projects, but tlcey optimizing rural road works. These iproceeded without a comprehensive Recommendations: Government procedures should be fully described, plan or a considered strategy or this should consider preparing a corpre- made the basis for project design, cover purpose. Maintenance components hensive maintenance development the whole rural road networks of the received little attention, either from plan for rural roads, giving full and borrower agencies, and consider all the weak government institutions particular coverage to district roads. major feasible alternatives. "Disinvest- responsible for themb or from Bank Issues covered should include ments" in roads that are not maintained super%ision mid&sions. institution building and maintenance should be explicitly identified. financin& costing, and accounting. The Bank's rural ruads support has The Bank should support the govern- not produced sustainabLe maintenance ment through sector work. It also Alrrlra rjcssol institutions on a desirable scale. District should plan for a rural roads mainte- agencies have primary responsibility nance project that will address the as discrete components, with their own for district road maintenance, but problems of district roads and keep specific physical definitions, cost they typically lack road expertise, and road construction components within estimates, financing plans, and imple- national and provincial agencies are narrow limits mentation schedules. not well equipped to provide technical support. Diistrict roads Sw: "World Bank Support for Rural The Bank should incorporate the represent 70 percent of all rural roads, Roads Maintenaince: Plid ippine Case bulk of its rural roads assistance into and are in deplorable condition. Study", Report No. 7728. April 989. transport projects. Agricultural projects should restrict their assistance for roads to the bare essentials. Road maintenance in agricultural and results of rural road maintenance projects: Rural road construction and was generally poor, especially in Monitoring and evaluation: The maintenance financed through agricul- agricultural projects. Few PCRs Bank should upgrade monitoring, tural projects was noticeably less well reported on actual road conditions at evaluation, and reporting in all types of planned, engineered and contracted project completion, raising ques- rural road operations. Reporting than that financed through transport tions-for the transport projects- should be mandatory, comprehensive, projects. Agricultural projects per- about the validity of re-estimated and based on sound engineering formed much less well, in maintaining economic rates of return. Feedback practice. Rural road maintenance rural roads, than did transport projects. was limited on the adequacy of "audits" by independent consulting particular project designs or of Bank companies should be encouraged, to Reporting on road maintenance: procedures and approaches to assure a reliable, complete, and steady Documentation on the implementation maintenance of rural roads. flow of road management data. Oa Pr6cis is produced by the Operations Evaluation Department of the World Bank to help disseminate recent evaluation findings to development professionals within and outside the World Bank. The views here are those of the Operations Evaluation staff and should not be attributed to the World Bankorits affiliated organizations. Pleaseaddresscomments orenquiries to the managingeditor,RachelWeaving,E1204,World Bank, telephone473-1719. February 1993