Publication: Performance-Based Road Rehabilitation and Maintenance Contracts in Argentina : A Review of Fifteen Years of Experience (1996-2010)
Date
2011-09
ISSN
Published
2011-09
Author(s)
Marcela Silva, Maria
Liautaud, Gerard
Abstract
The road sector is the dominant mode of
transport in Argentina carrying nearly 80 percent of total
freight volume. The road network has a total length of about
630,000 km (11 percent paved), divided in three
administrative levels: national, provincial, and municipal.
However, more than 70 percent of total traffic volumes are
concentrated on the paved national and provincial network,
with the municipal network consisting of unpaved roads,
access roads to farms and feeder roads with very low traffic
volumes. A survey carried out in 1992 confirmed that only 44
percent of the national paved network was in good condition,
with a high 35 percent of roads in poor condition.
Rehabilitation works for the non-concessioned portion were
contracted to the private sector under the traditional
ad-measurement type or unit price-based system while
maintenance activities continued to be carried out by
force-account. In 1993 a loan from the World Bank was
approved to finance, for the first time, high priority
rehabilitation and maintenance works on the non-concessioned
paved network, leading to the development of a long-term
maintenance strategy based on the gradual expansion of
performance-based contracts, a modality that is currently
being replicated in other countries around the world. This
paper is organized as follows: chapter one presents the
national road network of Argentina; chapter two gives
origins and definition of the Contrato de Recuperacion y
Mantenimiento (CREMA) contracts; chapter three gives
evolution in the procurement and the design standards of the
CREMA; chapter four presents the market's response to
the CREMA system; chapter five presents impact of the CREMA
on the condition of the national road network; chapter six
deals with cost effectiveness of the CREMA system; chapter
seven presents Bank's strategy and role in the road
sector in Argentina; and chapter eight gives lessons learned.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Marcela Silva, Maria; Liautaud, Gerard. 2011. Performance-Based Road Rehabilitation and Maintenance Contracts in Argentina : A Review of Fifteen Years of Experience (1996-2010). Transport papers series;no. TP-36. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17492 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”