Transport Issues Series Discussion Papers are informal publication of the World Bank. They disseminate recent experiences and innovations in the World Bank's transport sector operations.
This discussion paper reviews and evaluates the productivity and cost effectiveness of direct labor operations of the county highway authorities in the United Kingdom (UK) and traces the development and cost effectivenss of work-study based bonus incentive schemes for highway maintenance labor in UK since 1960.
... See More + The Direct Labor Organization (DLO) Legislation of 1981 is discussed, particularly the provision requiring all local authority public works organizations to operate on a commercial basis as contractors to their client authorities. The experience with DLO Legislation suggests that it has promoted improvements in the cost effectiveness of bonus schemes and has strongly affected the organization of highway authorities and the attitude of the employees. The introduction of the competitive element into the operations of the local government public works agencies has resulted in gains in operational efficiency and has encouraged the development of user friendly maintenance management information and control systems. More generally the study assesses the transferability of the UK experience to the developing countries, given the often very serious weaknesses in public administration in many of those countries.
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This paper analyses the effects of various economic policies on the transport and agricultural sectors. It also examines the effects of government interventions in one of these sectors on the performance of the other.
... See More + In particular, the principal issues discussed concern the impact on the performance of agriculture and transport as a result of government policies with respect to the exchange rate, the foreign exchange regime, prices, subsidies, marketing systems and ease of entry into the trucking industry.
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This document is an annotated bibliography of the works produced in the transportation sector of the World Bank up to the end of 1986. It is the first of a series with updates planned for each year.
... See More + The entries have been divided into three time periods: i) Works published in 1986; ii) Works published in the period 1980-1985; and iii) Works published prior to 1980. In general, the more recent the entry the more detailed is the annotation. Within each period, the entries are presented according to the mode of transport with two special classes for sector-level issues and the construction industry. Finally, as explained in the classification scheme, each entry is designated by a code indicating the type of product it is: book, report, article/paper, or, in keeping with the times, computer program and how to get it.
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Although most Bank transport projects rarely create measurable disturbances to the ecological system, there are occasions when such projects can raise important environmental issues.
... See More + Accordingly, the Bank decided to review the way environmental concerns have been dealt with in past transport projects with a view to recommending improvements. As a result, this report contains a brief checklist which has been prepared to help guide Bank staff in the identification of potential adverse environmental impacts; in due course this will be expanded into a set of formal guidelines. Steps to avoid, or minimize, adverse impacts are expected to concentrate on adding environmental objectives to the design brief for detailed engineering, adding or amending clauses in standard contract documents, and providing for surveillance and monitoring of long-term impacts. It is also suggested that Bank staff help to strengthen the institutions that deal with the environment in the Bank's member countries, by involving them in the project processing cycle. Finally, it has also been decided that the Transportation Department's Policy Unit would become the focal point for environmental considerations in the sector and would designate an environmental officer to assist in providing operational advice.
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The geometric standards of a road, such as width, minimum curve radius and maximum grades, can have a major effect on the costs of road construction and maintenance, and the speed, safety and vehicle operating costs experienced by those who travel on the road.
... See More + This paper investigates the effects of geometric improvements on the overall costs and benefits of a road project. The main objective of the paper is to develop a framework for evaluating changes in geometric characteristics, so that appropriate standards can be established for particular cases. A further objective of this paper is to review and assess methods for predicting vehicle operating costs, and the extent to which these methods take account of road geometry characteristics. While various models are available for predicting these costs for free-flowing traffic on relatively wide roads, the modelling of traffic interaction and narrow road widths is currently inadequate. Hence, much of this paper is devoted to developing approximate procedures for taking account of these effects. The paper also considers the estimation of marginal construction costs with changes in geometric standards, and the sensitivity of predicted geometric standards to uncertainties in the input parameters.
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The efficiency of equipment management and usage is very low in many parts of the developing world. This is typically manifested in low equipment availability and utilization, causing severe economic losses.
... See More + The deficiencies can generally be grouped under three problem headings, namely, managerial and general organization, spare parts, and foreign-aid induced problems. This paper gives recommendations on how to reduce, and hopefully go a long way towards eliminating the problem. The first step obviously is to take stock of equipment at hand and its condition, as well as workshops, stores, manpower and management. Following this, further actions and needs are defined. Such actions include improvements in management systems, e.g., equipment monitoring, spare parts supply and systems, and cost accounting, to name but a few. They may evolve into plant hire schemes, or into increased use of private or parastatal contractors, either for the road maintenance function itself, or of the equipment provision, maintenance, spares provision or some portion thereof. Finally, systems and criteria for decision-making on equipment acquisition have to be set up in conformity with principles of sound financial management.
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The introduction of competitive practices in the performance of routine maintenance operations is gaining strength in many countries. In some cases, the move to contracting has been motivated by the rapid growth of maintenance needs, which exceeded available resources; in others, the contracting out of routine maintenance was motivated by the presence of intractable obstacles to the development of effective force account organizations.
... See More + This paper presents a review of the experience in nine countries with routine maintenance by contract. Those countries cover the whole spectrum of development, and their case studies reveal the advantages and potential pitfalls of contracting for this purpose. The authors conclude that, given a suitable planning and management organization within the contracting authority, and the prevalence of a truly competitive environment, the advantages of contracting can outweigh the disadvantages in terms, inter alia, of actual maintenance work carried out, cost effectiveness, flexibility in the management of resources, and support to the development of the national construction industry.
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