Skip to main content

Extending the life of road assets

In an opinion piece published by the IRF, Matthew Jordan-Tank, head of infrastructure policy and IPPF, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has explained that extending the functional life of road assets can be achieved using performance-based contracts. In most developing and merging market economies, roads require rehabilitation, or even reconstruction, many years prior to the expected date. Simply put: usable life is not equal to design life, and it is not uncommon to find that a ro
April 7, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
RSSIn an opinion piece published by the 3918 IRF Washington, Matthew Jordan-Tank, head of infrastructure policy and IPPF, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has explained that extending the functional life of road assets can be achieved using performance-based contracts.

In most developing and merging market economies, roads require rehabilitation, or even reconstruction, many years prior to the expected date. Simply put: usable life is not equal to design life, and it is not uncommon to find that a road must be rehabilitated only halfway into its estimated original asset duration. While harsh climate conditions with large seasonal temperature changes may play a role, much of this 'premature' investment boils down to lack of systematic maintenance that is normally applied in countries with regular 'asset management' funding regimes.

Applying performance-based maintenance contracting to the road sector can produce significant fiscal improvements, as well as user benefits in the form of better maintained and therefore safer roads.

EBRD recently published a paper providing a condensed yet substantive overview of the key international lessons learned in the area of performance-based contracts.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Accident prevention leading the road safety fight
    February 23, 2012
    ASECAP and its members are among many oragnisations leading the fight to improve road safety Many European organisations have pledged their support to the goal of dramatically reducing even further the number of accidents, fatalities and serious injuries on roads. And at its annual road safety conference in the Czech capital Prague, ASECAP (the European Association of Operators of Tolled Road Infrastructures), presented EU institutions, national authorities and transport stakeholders "the outstanding resul
  • The use of telematics in construction machines is growing
    May 20, 2015
    Demand for telematics technology is growing, as equipment users begin to lean the value of these systems – Alan Dron reports With construction projects increasingly operating to wafer-thin profit margins, any technological assistance that can keep the accounts in the black is welcome. This is particularly the case with those projects where contractors can share a larger slice of the profits if they complete their work ahead of schedule. The downside, of course, is that they also share the pain if the
  • Climate resiliency: beyond design and construction
    July 18, 2023
    By Zeev Halber, CEO of AnyWay Solutions
  • Black is green: the bitumen sector rises to the mobility challenge
    April 14, 2020
    Asphalt may be black most of the time, but the bitumen sector is green and getting greener, says Siobhan McKelvey, head of Eurobitume.