Regional and Local Roads Program Support Project

closed

The Regional and Local Roads Program Support project for Macedonia objectives will be achieved mostly by improving the condition and quality of a part of the network of regional and local roads. The primary target group are road users in general, whose cost of using the roads will be reduced. The project activities will include: (i) physical works to improve road conditions, thereby reducing road user costs in the short term; and (ii) broader institutional support to improve overall road management in the country, thereby reducing road user costs in the medium and longer term. There are three components to the project. The first component is the rehabilitation and periodic maintenance of regional roads. This component will provide funding to cover about 330 km of paved road sections in the 2008 - 2012 periods (about 8.7percent of all regional roads). It will include civil works which can mostly be characterized as localized repairs, periodic maintenance and light rehabilitation. It has been agreed that the road sections to be included in this component will be those which have been selected through a recent European Commission (EC)-financed study carried out by the consulting firm Hydroplan.The preparation of bidding documents and the supervision of works will be financed from Fund for National and Regional Roads (FNRR's) regular resources as a contribution to the Program. The second component is the rehabilitation and periodic maintenance of local roads. This component will provide funding to cover about 420 km of paved and unpaved local roads over the 2008 - 2012 period (about 5 percent of all Local roads) selected by the municipalities. It will include civil works for localized repairs or replacement of structural layers and drainage structures, followed by partial or full asphalt resurfacing or regravelling. The third component is the institutional support, This aims at strengthening the Government's overall capacity to manage and maintain the country's road network through the road agency FNRR. It will provide various types of institutional support, such as: (a) an institutional analysis of the FNRR to identify weaknesses and define actions to overcome such weaknesses; (b) based on the results of the institutional analysis, specific measures to address weaknesses within FNRR; (c) actions related to the implementation of the national road transport strategy and the new road law; (d) regular financial and technical audits; (e) training; (f) office and Information Technology (IT) equipment; and (g) other activities which may be identified later.