Lao PDR Climate Resilient Road Connectivity Improvement Project

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The proposed project aims to improve climate resilient road access in targeted provinces, enhance capacity to manage road network, and in case of an Eligible Crisis or Emergency, respond promptly and effectively to it. The project will improve about 300 km of district roads and rural roads in poor districts of Khammouan, Savannakhet, and Saravan provinces. The Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) in consultation with the Department of Public Works and Transport (DPWT) of these three provinces had identified a long list of proposed roads. About 100 km of roads in each of the provinces are selected from the roads in this longlist through a prioritization exercise based on aspects which include: (i) passing through a poor district – based on poverty head count, (ii) criticality of the link for climate resiliency of the network, (iii) connectivity to agricultural areas, (iv) population served by the road, (v) traffic level, and (vi) not passing through environmentally sensitive areas. The proposed project provides connectivity to National Roads and access to the east west economic corridor between Vietnam and Thailand thus increasing market linkages and contribute towards greater economic gains to the local communities. Due to government’s funding constraints, most of available funds are channeled to the National Roads network that limits maintenance of the secondary and tertiary networks which primarily serve the rural population and agricultural areas. The tertiary network of District Roads and Rural roads are extremely vulnerable to climate risks and has (i) most of its cross-drainage structures in dilapidated condition, (ii) very few culverts, (iii) no longitudinal drainage facilities, and (iv) no adequate embankments. Only about 5.6 percent of them is paved, and rest is either gravel surfaced or earthen. 40 percent of these roads are inaccessible for over six months in a year, and during extreme climate events. More than 40 percent of villages are 6 km or more from the main road and nearly half are not accessible during the rainy seasons. High transport and logistic costs constrain agricultural growth and integration into growing urban markets within the country and into the regional export markets. The proposed project will have the following components as detailed below.Component 1: Climate Resilient Road Access: The project will support (i) improvement of about 300 km of District Roads and Rural Roads in the provinces of Khammouan, Savannakhet, and Saravan to the standards of Class V/VI roads as per MPWT’s Road Design Manual and addressing climate and disaster resilience aspects, (ii) construction supervision of the project road improvement works, and (iii) maintenance of the project roads post improvement during the project period.Component 2: Project Management: This component will support (i) financial audit, (ii) technical audit of the project road improvement works during construction, (iii) environmental and social monitoring, (iv) road safety audit of the project road designs, (v) road user satisfaction surveys carried out at the start of implementation, at mid-term, and at the close of the project, (vi) incremental operating costs, (vii) technical and operational assistance for the day-to-day management, monitoring and evaluation of the Project, and (viii) land acquisition, resettlement, and rehabilitation. Component 3: Institutional Development: This component will support MPWT in (i) capacity building of local contractors in the areas of Output and Performance-based Road Contracts, climate resilience, road safety, and environmental and social risk management, (ii) a study on climate resilient road network planning and prioritization and capacity building of MPWT and DPWTs, (iii) preparation of a road sector financing strategy, (iv) training of MPWT and DPWT staff on cross-cutting issues including road safety, gender, citizen engagement, and climate disaster risk, and (v) a female internship program.Component 4: Contingent Emergency Response: This component will support MPWT in case of an Eligible Crisis or Emergency in responding promptly and effectively to it as per the Contingent Emergency Response ManualThe proposed project will adopt the design standards specified in MPWT’s Road Design Manual and address climate risks. The Road Design Class is V/VI depending upon the traffic volume in the design year i.e., 100 – 300 passenger car units per day roads as Class V and 50 – 100 passenger car units per day roads as Class VI. The project roads are expected to be in flat or rolling terrain and therefore their geometric design will be for a design speed of 60 kmph (flat terrain) or 40 kmph (rolling terrain). The cross-sectional parameters will be 2 lanes of 2.75 m width and 0.75 m wide shoulders on both sides for roads designed for Road Design Class V. For Road Design Class VI, the cross-sectional parameters will be one lane of 3.5 m width and 1.5 m wide unpaved shoulders on both sides. The pavements will mostly have Double Bituminous Surface Treatment surfacing except for few stretches which will be laid with a concrete pavement. Many of the cross-drainage structures may need to be replaced with newly constructed concrete bridges or box culverts as the existing structures are in dilapidated condition. The project roads will not have major realignments and generally follow the existing alignments. The risks and impacts of climate change will be identified, and mitigation measures will be incorporated during the project design through infrastructure design and material choices, and through management. These will include use of improved asphalt mixtures, determination of the flood line to account for climate change and to inform the Finished Road Level of the pavement as well as the soffits of the bridge decks to reduce inundation and severe flooding of low-lying infrastructure. The subgrade of the pavement will be at least 0.5 m above the High Flood Level at the location. Pipe culverts and box culverts less than 10 m span will be designed for a 25-year flood frequency and box culverts more than 10 m span and short bridges will be designed for a 50-year flood frequency. The surface drainage system will also include side ditches, cut-off ditches to prevent erosion of embankments, and toe ditches. Bio-engineering measures such as top soiling and grassing will be used to arrest erosion of slopes of high embankments and steep cuts. Specific measures linked to operational changes may include shortening maintenance periods to accommodate changes in precipitation and temperature, increasing monitoring frequencies to ensure structures are enduring climate change pressures, monitoring the deformations of the pavement layers, monitoring the bridge structures, increasing financial and technical resources for more frequent maintenance and repairs. The project will undertake consultations with the key stakeholders including local communities, women, and road users during road design and implementation, and in the planning of other ancillary community infrastructure improvements. The project will explore opportunities to increase women’s employment primarily through engagement of women in road construction and maintenance activities. The proposed road improvement activities will have low impact on Green House Gas emissions due to reasons that the proposed project roads have very low traffic volumes, and the proposed roads are also used for non-motorized transport by the rural population.