Other Infrastructure Study
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Publication
Concrete Pavements for Climate Resilient Low-Volume Roads in Pacific Island Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-09-01)In pursuit of economic and social development objectives, governments of Pacific Island Countries (PICs) desire to upgrade unpaved low-volume roads (LVRs) for the improvement in connectivity and quality of life associated with all weather-access. Whilst the benefits are clear, the capital cost of conventional pavement technology and the recurrent cost of maintenance make it hard to justify the required investment in upgrading LVRs. Typical LVRs are surfaced with a bituminous chip seal or a thin asphalt concrete (AC) layer on processed aggregate base and subbase courses. Constructing such pavements in PICs is expensive, given the scarcity of aggregate of requisite quality, relatively limited domestic road construction capacity, and scale diseconomies in the use of equipment, plant and materials. Moreover, vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change necessitates consideration of more resilient paving alternatives. The findings of the study suggest that there is substantial promise for concrete pavements to be used for low-volume (<400 vehicles a day) roads. Four different types of concrete pavement were assessed including the strengths, weaknesses and operations and maintenance (O and M) implications of each pavement type. Although prepared primarily for the PICs, the study provides valuable insights and technical guidance on the application of concrete pavements for LVRs in other regions outside of the Pacific Islands. -
Publication
From A Rocky Road to Smooth Sailing: Building Transport Resilience to Natural Disasters
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06)Reliable transport infrastructure is one of the backbones of a prosperous economy, providingaccess to markets, jobs and social services. Sustainable Development Goal 9 (SDG9) calls forincreased access to sustainable transport infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries.Collectively, these countries will need to spend between 0.5 percent and 3.3 percent of their GDPannually (157 billion to 1 trillion US Dollars) in new transport infrastructure by 2030 – plus an additional 1 percent to 2 percent of GDP to maintain their network – depending on their ambition and their efficiency in service delivery (Rozenberg and Fay, 2019). Because of the wide spatial distribution of transport infrastructure, many transport assets are exposed and vulnerable to natural hazards, increasing costs for national transport agencies and operators. During the 2015 floods in Tbilisi, Georgia, the repair of transport assets contributed approximately 60 percent of the total damage cost (GFDRR, 2015). In the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, accessibility as measured by the length of open networks directly after the shock dropped by 86 percent for highways and by 71 percent for railways (Kazama and Noda, 2012b). Such transport disruptions necessarily have direct impacts on the local economy. Employees face difficulties commuting, access to firms is disrupted for clients, interruptions in the supply chain inhibit production, and finished products cannot be easily shipped (Kajitani and Tatano, 2014). The paper, prepared as background material for the Lifelines report on infrastructure resilience, summarizes the main findings on the risk faced by transport networks and users as a result of natural disasters and climate change, and the main recommendations for building more resilient transport networks. It starts by describing how transport disruptions affect firms and households either directly and through supply chains. It then proposes a range of approaches and solutions for building more resilient transport networks, showing that the additional cost of resilience is not high if resources are well spent. Finally, it provides a set of practical recommendations. -
Publication
Improving Climate Resilience of Federal Road Network in Brazil
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-05)Although Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, it has a relatively low number of natural hazards. However, its exposure to natural hazards has increased relative to other countries because of insufficient preventive actions in the past, resulting in more damage from natural hazards to both infrastructure and human lives than countries of comparable size would incur. Brazil faces an increasing risk of natural disasters, in particular floods and landslides. The objective of the study is to strengthen capacity of geohazard disaster resilience of federal highway infrastructure in Brazil through reviewing disaster risk management (DRM) capacity for federal road infrastructure and case studies of applying innovative methodologies for assessing disaster risk and evaluating economic benefits of resilience countermeasures. Although floods and landslides are the most recurrent natural disasters in Brazil, this report focuses on the latter, leaving floods for future studies. This report carefully describes how three innovative methodologies that, if properly applied, could improve the effectiveness of landslide risk management, thus reducing economic and human impacts. The report begins with diagnostics of the institutional capacities of geohazard risk management at the federal government level in Brazil. Chapters 1 and 2 include the backgrounds of natural disasters, road systems, and geohazards on roads in Brazil and a review of the road geohazard risk management with overviews of the following areas: institutional capacity and coordination, system planning, engineering designs, operation and maintenance, nonstructural measures, and contingency programming. Then, Chapters 3 and 4 describe the case study of application of the three innovative DRM assessment methodologies. Finally, Chapter 5 shows the suggestions and recommendations for the next steps. -
Publication
Measuring Rural Access: Update 2017/18
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-02-01)Transport connectivity is an essential part of the enabling environment for inclusive and sustained growth. In many developing countries, particularly in Africa, most people are still not connected to local, regional, or global markets. Such rural accessibility is crucial to reduce poverty and promote inclusive economic growth. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation (Goal 9), for which Target 9.1 is to ‘develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all.’ The Rural Access Index (RAI) was proposed and accepted as an indicator to measure this target. The RAI is one of the most important global indicators in the transport sector. It measures the proportion of people who have access to an all-season road within an approximate walking distance of 2 kilometers (km). There is a common understanding that the 2 km threshold is a reasonable extent for people’s normal economic and social purposes. The definition is also simple enough to understand and use not only in the transport sector, but also in the broader development context, such as poverty alleviation. The initial RAI study in 2006 was based on household surveys and other simplified methods, estimating the global index at 68.3 percent, leaving a rural population of about one billion disconnected around the world. -
Publication
Climate Resilient Road Assets in Albania
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-02-01)This report consolidates the findings and recommendations from studies on climate resilient road assets in Albania, financed through a grant provided by the Global facility for disaster reduction and recovery (GFDRR). The objective of the work is to assist the Albanian authorities in the prioritization of current and future climate, and seismic resilient investments in the road sector. The work has used climate and seismic vulnerability assessments, and proposed mitigation measures to improve climate and seismic resilience of the Albanian road network. The report finds that the investment in resilience and mitigation measures on the Albanian national road network is cost effective and is much less than the estimated annualised cost of the damage and loss that would accrue if mitigation measures are not put in place and maintained. -
Publication
Investing in Logistics for Sustainable Economic Growth: Background Studies for the Preparation of Cambodia Logistics Master Plan
(World Bank, Phnom Penh, 2018-10)The World Bank prepared three background studies as inputs for the development of the Cambodia Logistics Master Plan led by the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) in 2017–2018. These studies benefit from a close coordination and collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) that focused its assessment on transport infrastructure and connectivity. The key findings and recommendations are summarized into four parts in respect of the three background studies: (a) an update of trade competitiveness, (b) a review of the legal and regulatory framework of the logistics sector in Cambodia, and (c) a design of the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework for the proposed Cambodia Logistics Master Plan. -
Publication
Georgia Economic Impact of East-West Highway Phase 2: Assessing the Impact of East-West Highway Investments on Exports through Gravity Modeling
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-06-27)The objective of this study is to assess the impact of the East-West Highway improvement program on Georgia’s ability to access international markets. As highlighted extensively in the literature, improving transport infrastructure and the efficiency of the logistics sector can help countries gain competitiveness in international export markets, which can translate into faster economic growth and higher income. This study hypothesizes that investments in the EWH have reduced the cost of shipping Georgian goods to the rest of the world, and such reductions should be more significant for goods transported by road. To estimate the effect of cost reductions generated by improvements in the EWH, a gravity-type model in first-differences has been estimated. The results show that: (i) a 10 percent increase in the length of upgraded road network predicts a 1.1 percent increase in exports transported by road while no significant effect is estimated for exports on other transport modes (rail, sea, and air); (ii) the resulting increase in exports by road was reflected by a decrease in exports transported by sea; (iii) the effect is statistically and economically significant only for customs offices located along the EWH; (iv) only exports of time-sensitive products responded positively and significantly to improvements in the EWH during the 2006-2015 period; (v) upgrading the entire EWH is estimated to generate additional export revenues between USD 776 million and USD 1,466 million. It is important to note that the overall trade generating effect of the investment is expected to be somewhat lower as the results suggest some substitution between road and sea transport, but the overall impact is a significant boost to exports. -
Publication
Prioritizing Infrastructure Investments in Panama: Pilot Application of the World Bank Infrastructure Prioritization Framework
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-04)Infrastructure services are significant determinants of economic development, social welfare, trade, and public health. As such, they typically feature strongly in national development plans. While governments may receive many infrastructure project proposals, however, resources are often insufficient to finance the full set of proposals in the short term. Leading up to 2020, an estimated US$836 billion - 1 trillion will be required each year to meet growth targets worldwide (Ruiz-Nunez and Wei, 2014; World Bank). Global estimates of infrastructure investments required to support economic growth and human development lie in the range of US$65-70 trillion by 2030 (OECD, 2006), while the estimated pool of available funds is limited to approximately US$45 trillion (B20, 2014). The past twenty years have also seen a shift towards decentralized infrastructure planning. Many subnational governments, regional entities, and sector agencies have been delegated responsibility for infrastructure planning promote local responsiveness, but responsibility for allocating funds often remains with a centralized finance agency (CFA). While constituencies may propose numerous projects, governments often have insufficient financial resources to implement the full suite of proposals. This report presents the IPF methodology and results of the pilot application to a select set of transport and water and sanitation projects in Panama. The report first gives background information on infrastructure prioritization in Panama, then follows with a description of the IPF in technical and implementation terms. Next, we present the results of the pilot and close with recommendations for implementing IPF to a wider set of projects. -
Publication
Federative Republic of Brazil iRAP Pilot Technical Report: Federal Highways
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-01)As part of efforts to curb road deaths and serious injuries, the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) invited the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) to work with the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (Departamento Nacional de Infraestrutura de Transportes, DNIT) to assess the safety of Brazilian roads. During this second assessment of Brazilian roads, approximately 3,400km of roads were assessed. This technical report describes the road assessment project and includes details on data collection, the methodology used and a summary of the results. The infrastructure-related risk assessment involved detailed surveys and coding of 50 road attributes at 100 meter intervals along the network and creation of Star Ratings, which provide a simple and objective measure showing the level of risk on the road network. The star ratings show that 1 percent of road length is rated as 5-star, 9 percent is rated as 4-star, 58 percent is rated as 3-star, and the remaining 32 percent is rated as 2-star and below for vehicle occupants. For motorcyclists, no roads were rated as 5-star, only 3 percent of road length is rated as 4-star, 47 percent is rated as 3-star, and the remaining 50 percent is rated 2-star and below. For pedestrians less than 1 percent is rated as 4-star and 5-star, 2 percent is rated as 3-star and the remaining 13 percent is rated 2-star and below. For bicyclists less than 1 percent is rated as 5-star or 4-star, 5 percent is rated as 3-star and the remaining 14 percent is rated 2-star and below. The project also involved the creation of a Safer Roads Investment Plans, which draws on more than 90 proven road safety treatments, ranging from low cost road markings and pedestrian refuges to higher cost intersection upgrades and full highway duplication. -
Publication
Shifting into Higher Gear: Recommendations for Improved Grain Logistics in Ukraine
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-08)This study was conceived on the basis of a request by Ukraine’s Ministry of Agricultural Policies and Food (MoAPF). In 2013, the MoAPF explored the World Bank’s interest for investing in grain hoppers, following a deficit of hoppers and concerns about related difficulties for grain transport. In response, the World Bank secured resources from the Multi Donor Trust Fund for Trade and Development (TF016693) to carry out a review of grain logistics in Ukraine in order to better understand the challenges facing the sector. The objectives of this report are to assess the functioning of the grain logistics system, identify bottlenecks and put forward practical recommendations for investments and reform. Research points to five key drivers of current high logistics costs: (i) lack of regulatory clarity and sub-optimal management of public assets that create barriers to private investments; (ii) underutilization of river transport, (iii) underinvestment in rail transport; (iv) inefficiencies in storage management, and (v) excessive use of road transport. However, there are two important limitations of the report that should be taken into account. First, the ongoing crisis remains a source of uncertainty. It has so far had limited impact on grain production and logistics, yet access to finance has become more difficult and other impacts might arise in the future. Second, there are two areas that the report does not address: customs and ports. Both are important elements of logistics costs and deserve a comprehensive analysis in the future.