A better road to the future for efficiency – improving performance

Report by IRF Global & McKinsey identifies pathways to efficiency gain A report released jointly by the International Road Federation and McKinsey & Company will help transport decision-makers and international financial institutions identify and leverage efficiency gains in road project design and delivery. This will potentially save billions of dollars each year. The report, titled “A better road to the future,” illustrates the complexity of the challenge in designing and delivering road infrastructu
September 10, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
Report by the Washington-based 8738 IRF Global & McKinsey identifies pathways to efficiency gain


A report released jointly by the International Road Federation and 7505 McKinsey & Company will help transport decision-makers and international financial institutions identify and leverage efficiency gains in road project design and delivery. This will potentially save billions of dollars each year.

The report, titled “A better road to the future,” illustrates the complexity of the challenge in designing and delivering road infrastructure. The diagnostic approach to assess the performance of road infrastructure delivery systems outlined in this report illustrates that each country could build an improvement journey based on its individual starting point.

Research shows that road-sector investment needs to be approximately US$900 billion/year to keep pace with projected growth - currently, it falls short by $180 billion/year. Additionally, experience shows that to improve a country’s road network significantly and sustainably, the whole delivery system must be taken into consideration. It is not enough simply to increase funding.

A study of more than 20 road infrastructure delivery systems across the world enabled the project partners to identify a number of root causes and potential improvements. Many road infrastructure tenders receive too few bids and there are often significant cost variations. There is a lack of value assurance processes and there are significant challenges to scaling innovation.

The report focuses on what can be done to enhance the whole delivery system, ensuring that the spend results in the best possible road network – defined as the road network that best fulfills the transportation needs of the economy.

Commenting on the report, IRF president & CEO C Patrick Sankey noted “many authoritative studies have underscored the growing gap between investment needs on the one hand, and the combined spending on road construction and upkeep on the other. Less attention has been paid to the policies and mechanisms required to stretch available funds through better project selection, efficient procurement strategies, and effective delivery practices. Thanks to this collaboration between the IRF and McKinsey, transportation decision-makers now have a new comparative study on the cost-effectiveness of productivity-enhancing practices.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Mainstreaming road safety in transportation projects: scaling up global commitment
    April 6, 2017
    In its latest policy statement, the International Road Federation affirmed the essential role of road safety audits and inspections It called on multilateral institutions to introduce qualitative benchmarks and capacity strengthening programs to ensure countries progress towards a safe and forgiving road system. Road safety audits and inspections are a formal safety performance examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent, multidisciplinary team. They qualitatively estim
    Read More
  • Lessons in asset management from the US
    August 14, 2014
    Jason Bittner discusses effective strategies for implementing efficient asset management practices The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) established a performance-based highway programme aimed at improving how Federal transportation funds are allocated. The MAP-21 programme requires state departments of transport (DOT) to develop risk-based transportation asset management plans (TAMP) for roads and bridges. This move has also refocused attention on the need for asset management in t
    Read More
  • ACE/AECOM report: private sector and user-pay for English roads
    May 14, 2018
    It’s one minute to midnight for funding England’s roads, according to a timely new report, and the clock’s big hand is pointing to some form of user-pay solution, reports David Arminas Is there any way out of future user-pay funding for England’s highway infrastructure? The answer is a resounding ‘no’, according to the recently published report: Funding Roads for the Future. The brief 25-page document by the London-based Association for Consultancy and Engineering, ACE**, sums up the state of England’s ro
    Read More
  • Kirk Steudle Named 2018 IRF “Man of the Year”
    May 14, 2019
    Kirk Steudle, longtime Director of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and a globally recognized authority on the development of connected and automated vehicles has been nominated to receive IRF's most distinguished individual honour. According to IRF Chairman Eng. Abdullah A. Al-Mogbel "This accolade crowns an exceptional career and a highly respected voice on innovation in transportation, at a time when road sector stakeholders everywhere are embracing creative thinking in anticipation of ne
    Read More

Highlighted Content