Sustainable road management systems for developing countries : Namibian experience

Abstract

Paper presented at the 22nd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 14 - 16 July 2003 "National issues affecting the movement of people and goods - strategic approaches", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa. ABSTRACT: A Road Management System can be defined as: An All Encompassing Framework, Including Both Information Processing And Human Resources, For The Integrated Management Of The Road Network, Including The Determination And Optimisation Of Economically Warrented Projects, Programmes, Strategies And Budgets, For Both Development And Maintenance. A Road Management System (RMS) is becoming more and more critical for the management of the road network. RMS will assist road managers in the determination of the most economically viable maintenance projects and programmes and the generation of annual prioritised list works. Africa and especially Namibia is challenged by the loss of experienced field personnel, and without a scientific and an objective system to assist decision makers in the management of the road network, the entreprise is becoming just impossible. Namibia went through a major road sector reform from 1995 - 2000 funded by (Swedish International Development Agency) Sida. This restructuring process of the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications (MWTC) and the Department of Transport (DOT) in particular, brought about three new entities, the Roads Authority (RA), the Road Fund Administration (RFA) and the Roads Contractor Company (RCC). The RA is to manage the road network, the RFA is to fund the Roads Authority and local authorities from dedicated fund from the Road User Charges (RUC), and the RCC is to do the physical work of the road maintenance and construction. The RMS was included in the Act of the RA, therefore it plays a very important role. This helped the RA to look at the RMS seriously. This paper will look at how exactly the RMS of Namibia was developed and how is contributing to the management of the road network in an efficient and effective way. It will also look at the necessary ingredients to make a RMS sustainable especially for developing countries, including Namibia.