Who is responsible for the construction and maintenance of National Highways and which department has been established to accomplish this task?
Answers
The topic of construction broadly encompasses the issues relevant to the process of road construction and maintenance, including the design, contracting, implementation, supervision, and maintenance of roads and related structures, such as bridges and interchanges. For purposes of the knowledge base presented here, the topic covered includes public works, private contracting of civil works, and labor-based construction techniques. With respect to the process of maintenance, this includes road maintenance in general, as well as the private contracting of maintenance activities. In addition, issues related to the area of construction and the environment are also included, such as construction and maintenance environmental impacts and mitigation, and construction site safety.
The knowledge base is divided into three main topic areas with key issues under these topics, as follows:
Construction
Public Works | Contracting of Civil Works | Labor-based Construction & Maintenance Methods for Road Works | Construction Safety | Unit Costs of Construction & Maintenance Works
Maintenance
Road Maintenance | Maintenance by Contract | Monitoring, Implementation and Evaluation of Roads
Environment
Roads & the Environment
In additions, links are provided to:
Sample Terms of Reference | Selected References | Design & Appraisal of Rural Transport Infrastructure Web site | Proceedings from the Innovative Road Rehabilitation & Recycling Technologies Pavement Seminar (PDF, 152KB)
Construction
Public Works
While adoption of competitive bidding for road and other civil works has been the norm in most countries of the world, some countries do not have a sufficient industry of independent contractors and road works are mostly done by force account or awarded to state construction agencies on a negotiated basis. In many of these countries, not only are cost high and quality low, it is common for suppliers of construction materials and services to have monopoly power, further increasing inefficiency and lowering quality. In these situations, it is a combination of transferring work from the public to private sector (PDF 22 KB) and the introduction of competition into operations that is often the best way to decrease inefficiency and improve quality. Introducing competitive bidding into public works contracts (PDF 21 KB) is also often an important first step to this goal. Secondly, the contracting out of the works function (PDF 21 KB) requires the introduction of competition into the operation of road agencies themselves, either by the greater use of existing private contractors, or by allowing public sector agencies to compete with the private sector.
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