Rural Road Projects Research Articles

Effect of road infrastructure on food sovereignty in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

The study was designed to assess the effect of road infrastructure on food Sovereignty in Akwa lbom State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to: ascertain the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents; identify the food sovereignty in the study area and ascertain the effect of road infrastructure on food sovereignty in the study area. The survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised all rural farming households in Akwa Ibom State. The study adopted multi-stage and simple random sampling techniques. Three blocks were selected from each of the three Agricultural Zones in the state. Three cells were randomly selected from each of the blocks sampled, which gave a total of twenty-seven (27) cells. A total of 450 respondents were selected using simple random sampling technique. Data were collected with the aid of a semi structured questionnaire. Data obtained were analyzed using percentages, means and standard deviation as well as ranking. The results of the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents showed that 58.90% of the respondents were males (265), while 41.10% of them were females (185). A good number of the respondents, 53.60%, were married (241), while 24.20%were single (109). Also, the results showed that 19.60% of the respondents had no formal education (88), while 30.70% attained secondary level of education (134), and about 33.70% of the respondents had tertiary level of education (152). The socio-economic characteristics of the respondents also indicated that 40.0% of the respondents had farm size ranging from 1-2 hectares, while 5.80% had farm size of 5 hectares and above. A good number of the respondents had access to credit (59.60%), while a small proportion (40.40%) had no credit facilities. The study revealed that 21.30% of the respondents had income ranging from N351,000 to N450,000, less than one US$ while a small proportion of the famers (8.90%) had income of about N251,000 to N350,000 only from farming activities. The main sources of food sovereignty of the people were crop farming and livestock production, though some were involved in trading and artisanal activities. The study noted that road projects have reduced accident (x ̅=2.75), increased farmers’ income (x ̅=3.20), increased trading and shopping activities (x ̅ =2.62), and reduced floods (x ̅ =2.64) among others. It was also concluded that road projects have positive effects of food sovereignty although some of the abandoned projects have caused some hardship and environmental challenges. The study recommended the completion of all abandoned road projects carried out in rural Akwa Ibom State in particular, and Nigeria in general. The study, however, concluded that in Akwa Ibom State, rural road projects have brought the much needed relief from accidents, wastage, spoilage, and food sovereignty to many hitherto isolated rural communities. Key words: Akwa Ibom State, Effect, Farmers, Food, Sovereignty, Road infrastructure

Participatory Development Approach for the Rural Road Networks: A Case of Infrastructure Development Office, Kaski

This study aims to assess people’s participation in the rural road projects in Kaski District of Gandaki Province. The data were collected from 50 conveniently selected residents along the road project alignment Dopahare-Kristi-Bakrek- Pawaigaude area, using the convenient sampling procedure. This study is descriptive, and the questionnaires were used to collect data concerning the people’s participation and road infrastructure development in the villages. The findings of the study reveal that the presence of poor rural road infrastructure, both in quality and access, the road sector was found external resource-dependent, deficient in resource mobilization and topography of the rural area by itself escalates the problem. The community participation is not well-institutionalized in this project. The study concludes that public participation is crucial in developing a country like Nepal. People’s participation in Nepal is limited only for elite people, but not for people from disadvantaged groups. Though people’s participation has increased in Nepal over the last few decades but people from the underprivileged groups do not participate to the same extent of the elite group, which creates disputes in the society. This study recommends all concerned bodies such as the local communities, the municipality, and other stakeholders to take their responsibility to solve this critical issue.

Causes of Time Delay and Cost Overrun of Rural Road Projects in ‎Afghanistan

‎‎ The increasing frequency of cost overrun and time delay in rural road projects has been a concern for the government of Afghanistan. Based on a review of the MIS data from the MoPW and MRRD, almost all rural road projects which were implemented from 2015 to 2020 was not finished within fixed cost and time. In this study, the researcher found out the causes of time delay and cost overrun of rural road projects in Afghanistan. The study dwells on the qualitative approach and an open-ended interview were conducted with 10 people which are project managers, projects engineers, and employees of MRRD and MoPW and their contractors. According to the interviewees, there are 25 factors behind time delay and cost overrun of rural road projects in the country (16 for time delay and 9 for cost overrun). As a result of the volume of work that has to be done and resources to be utilized, there is the need to adopt best practices and strategies to ensure efficiency and quality delivery of service. The study recommends that the Ministry of Public Works (MoPW) and Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) as main implementers of rural road projects in the country must strive to improve on their administrative role of monitoring the various contract management methods. By considering best strategies, practices are always adhered to, so that there will be successful road projects delivering in terms of fixed cost finishing with no further time extension.

Rural access programs in Yemen: delay of international funded road projects

PurposeRoad projects are essential for poverty reduction and the socio-economic development of Yemeni people living in rural areas. Rural access programs, which are mainly sponsored by foreign countries and international organisations, are often delayed. The purpose of this paper is to identify the delay factors of rural road projects with a focus on stakeholder-related factors.Design/methodology/approachThe data was collected using a questionnaire survey from 164 participants representing 7 groups, namely, owner, government, donors, consultants, designers, contractors and beneficiaries. The data was analysed using the partial least squares path modelling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results show that the identified factors contribute to 16% of the variance of project delay. Donor and government-related factors have a significant relationship with delay. Further analysis of data using the IPMA procedure in PLS-SEM revealed the top factors contributing to delay, which are project selection criteria imposed by donors, government bureaucracy, decision-making process, weak laws and guidelines that regulate the work of project implementation units, procurement procedures, delay of payment to contractor and delay of transactions.Originality/valueThe timely completion of rural road projects can have a positive impact on the current and future rural access programs aiming to reduce poverty and increase access to health and education services of over 70% of Yemeni people living in rural areas. Such programs will reduce the misfortune of displaced people due to the ongoing war in the country.

Factors Influencing Governance Practices in Rural Development Projects: A Case Study of Rural Road Projects in Malaysia

Rural development projects are essential as a catalyst for balanced development between urban and rural areas, as well as tools for enhancing the living standard of the rural poor. This study focuses on the identification of factors that influence the governance practices in a rural road project in Malaysia. A single case study was conducted from the perspective of a stewardship theoretical lens on a rural road project in East Malaysia and multiple sources of evidence were used for data collection. The study discovered four main factors namely intrinsic motivation, altruistic empathy, effective leadership and shared vision that influence project governance practices in this project. Thus, this article contributes towards a better understanding of the interplay of these motivating factors, which drives public officials in different project actors for effective delivery in this project context. The findings of the study are limited to the utilisation of a single case study related to the rural road project and its contexts.

Study of Inefficiencies in Contract Management Practice in Rural Road

The objective of the research is to identify the inefficiencies in contract management practice in the SNRTP sub-projects and also the sources of these inefficiencies will try to find the probable solutions. To study the inefficiencies in contract management practice in SNRTP rural road projects, the checklist was prepared and data regarding the contract management were obtained with the project stakeholders. The data were collected using questionnaires, analysed using SPSS software, MS Excel and presented using the graph, table, and charts.The findings of the study showed that there are significant inefficiencies in contract management practice in the SNRTP project. It has been found that the majority of the respondents i.e. 79 percent of the experts interviewed opined that there are inefficiencies in the contract management practices in the rural road under SNRTP sub-projects, and only 21 percent think that the process is efficient from questionnaire survey. This has been statistically verified through descriptive statistics. The reason behind the inefficiencies in Contract Management Practice is mainly due to a lack of qualifications, knowledge, skills & experience of the contract management team, lack of cooperation & proper communication between project team member, lack of monitoring & evaluation in time, lack of timely meetings, slow decisions making, and improper planning & poor site management during the construction work. To overcome those inefficiencies some suggestions have been recommended as appointing the team member with proper qualifications, knowledge, skills & experience in the contract management. Proper communication & cooperation between team member, frequent inspection, monitoring and evaluation, completion of work within intended completion time, proper record keeping & timely issue management, and timely decision making from all stakeholders as required in construction work during the project implementation phase.

Probabilistic geotechnical designs in rural road infrastructure in Costa Rica

Rural road infrastructure normally lacks information to perform rigorous geotechnical designs, due especially, to budgeting restrictions. Three different transportation projects in rural areas in Costa Rica are presented, where a probabilistic approach was followed. The statistical parameters selected from previous research can be used as local literature values to perform probabilistic geotechnical designs and analyses when there is not enough data to execute a statistical analysis in a project. Moreover, these values could be used to better understand values obtained from geotechnical site exploration and possible regional tendencies. It is possible to conduct probabilistic geotechnical design even when a project does not include a throughout site exploration, like in low-budget projects. Probabilistic design for rural road projects can be a useful tool in the pursuit of optimal and efficient designs where soil behavior is better understood.

Identification of Factors Affecting the Performance of Rural Road Projects in Colombia

Rural roads play an indispensable role in economic and social well-being, especially in developing countries, contributing to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. For this reason, it is necessary to plan these projects properly to guarantee their success. In this line, the objective of this research is to identify significant variables generating overruns in time and cost using empirical data of 535 rural road projects in Colombia from 2015 to 2018. Bivariate analysis, with statistical tools like Spearman’s Rho and Kruskal–Wallis, allowed identifying that higher values of variables like budget and project intensity are related to higher deviations in cost and time. Additionally, it was found that projects with shorter durations are reporting higher time overruns. The worst performers are projects executed in the year that council mayors start their terms, those developed in municipalities with more resources, and those awarded using a competitive bidding process. Multivariate analysis, through Random Forest, assessed the effect of considering all variables interacting simultaneously and ranking them in order of importance. The results demonstrated a relationship between cost and time performance, and that numerical variables are more significant than the categorical ones. This study contributes to a better understanding of the causes of delays and cost overruns on rural roads, providing useful insight for researchers and industry practitioners.

Effectiveness of Technical Audit Practice ; A Case of Parsa District of Nepal

The research aims to analyze the effectiveness of technical audit practices in rural road projects in Nepal based on the seven prominent indicators. In order to achieve these objectives, the research has been conducted through literature review, questionnaire survey and case study. A comprehensive literature review was done to generate a set of indicators related to the technical audit conduction and its prevailing practices and the data was collected on the key factors incorporated under seven significant indicators and presented by using bar diagram, pie charts. The research finding indicates that the technical audit practices is suffering from many discrepancy and not got the smooth way to yield its result as effectively as it is planned It is suffering from budget deficiency, lack of engineering lab facility, lack of awareness among stakeholders, lack of systematic recording process and lack of decision making. It is expected that the results of the study will be useful to the government agencies and concerning donors to support them for development of construction industry.

Impact of supply chain risks on the completion for time of rural road projects in Bangladesh

Impact of supply chain risks on the completion for time of rural road projects in Bangladesh

Model for predicting cost of rural road projects in Thailand

Nowadays, construction cost plays an essential role in various projects, which are buildings, roads, railways, and bridges projects. Conceptual cost estimation in feasibility study is require high accuracy and less validation error especially in construction projects at early stages. The more improvement of estimation techniques, it would lead to the lesser problems of cost overrun, and extra expenses. This paper developed a cost estimation model for new constructed rural road projects. Considering the estimation methods for predicting the cost model, parametric method based on regression learner and NN method are applied. Previously, many researchers studied the cost applicable model by using various computer applications, so that this paper differed to compare these methods based on MATLAB. Accordingly, 44 road projects were compiled from DRR database, after that identifying the effective cost parameters referred on collected data. Subsequently, the data implementation process was focusing with regression learner based on automated regression training, and lastly, with NN toolbox concentrated on nftool for simulating the cost models. Another 7 road projects are tested with holdout validation process for these models. Due to this validation, we compare the predicted cost models within these methods. Finally, the developed models are reliable for not only the conceptual phase of future rural road projects but also the related construction fields can be recovered about the cost model creation.

Weaknesses of Economic Development on Semaq Beri in Terengganu

After independence the government has embarked on an inclusive development program in an effort to develop the Orang Asli community. Various development projects have been carry out to the Orang Asli community including resettlement of residences, rural road projects, provide of electricity, clean water and social facilities such as education to the Orang Asli. JAKOA has planned and implemented development programs as requested by the government. However, at the level of Orang Asli involvement in the development program it is still low. Limited and low involvement has affected the formation and development of the Orang Asli community. This is why most Orang Asli in Malaysia are still trapped in poverty. Therefore, the study was conducted to find out the factors to the lack of participation among Semaq Beri community at Hulu Terengganu. The results of the study are expected to provide an explanation on why some economic development programs have failed. From the findings, it also helps in planning and implementing more effective economic development programs in the future.

Application of Various Multiple Criteria Analysis Methods for the Evaluation of Rural Road Projects

Introduction:Ex-ante evaluation of rural road projects is important for proper utilisation of scarce financial resources. In recent years, several multiple criteria analysis methods have been applied for the evaluation of transportation projects.Methods:Here we compare three multi-criteria methods (i.e. TOPSIS, MOORA, and PROMETHEE) in ranking rural roads. The criteria and weightage were identified with an expert questionnaire survey and the decision matrix was obtained from a field survey of four rural roads of Nepal. These data demonstrate the successful application of various multi-criteria analysis methods for the evaluation of rural road projects with sustainable indicators.Results:The results of multi-criteria methods depend upon the value of performance measures, weightage, normalization, and aggregation procedures.Conclusion:We also concluded that the multi-criteria methods used (i.e. TOPSIS, MOORA, and PROMETHEE), in which weightage is derived using robust methods (e.g. AHP) and precise measurement of criteria of rural roads, in general return similar rankings.

PROTOCOL: The effects of road infrastructure, and transport and logistics services interventions on women's participation in informal and formal labour markets in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.

PROTOCOL: The effects of road infrastructure, and transport and logistics services interventions on women's participation in informal and formal labour markets in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.

The impact of rural roads and irrigation on household welfare: evidence from Vietnam

We measure the impact of road and irrigation projects on the livelihoods of households in the poorest and most remote areas of Vietnam using difference-in-difference estimators. We find that both rural road and irrigation projects help local households improve the access to safe water and welfare measured by a wealth index. The impact of irrigation projects is found to be larger than the impact of road projects. We also find heterogeneous impacts of road and irrigation projects. Households with higher levels of education tend to benefit more from road projects, while households with lower levels of education are likely to benefit more from irrigation projects.

Comparative Study of Labor-Based Method and Machine-Based Method at Rural Road Construction and Maintenance in Jimma Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

The construction of physical infrastructure is contributory for poverty alleviation in every country. The road is one of the major components which is very significant in Ethiopia due to lack of highly developed infrastructure, particularly in the rural road sector. Selection of the appropriate road construction and maintenance methods such as labor-based method or machine-based method is necessary to be financially viable. Most rural road construction projects usually suffer from the problem of selecting the appropriate technology for the proposed project and implementation of the chosen technology. In Ethiopia, Universal Rural Road Access Program (URRAP) is an employment-intensive program for employment purpose as a first step, out of poverty using labor-based road construction. However, there are problems, constraints, and challenges encountered when implementing labor-based method leading to enforce the mobilization of machines. The aim of this research study is to carry out the comparative analysis of ongoing and finished rural road projects in Jimma Zone and to establish a qualitative and quantitative merit of various technologies used in rural road construction and maintenance. Results showed from financial cost comparison, the labor - based method was 47% cheaper than a machine-based method to carry out the same tasks. On the other hand, the share of unskilled average direct labor cost comprised of an astounding 65% more of the total direct cost of a labor-based method. Also, labor-based method directly employed 300 unskilled laborers per workday for a month to complete 1.0 km section of a rural road.

Impact of roads on biodiversity: a case study from Karekhola rural road in Surkhet district of Nepal

Loss and degradation of biodiversity is continuing despite the past conservation efforts in Nepal. Out of many potential causes, this study strives to investigate the effects of a road project on biodiversity in the Middle Hills of Nepal. Information about floristic composition was collected from the adjoining community forests using group of 30 circular sample plots, each located at 50 m and 20 m far from the edge of the road. Results provide evidence that rural road projects are contributing to reduction of biodiversity which may be due to the removal of low-yielding timber species near the road-edge. The study also suggests that proximity to road-edge reduces under- storey vegetation which will lead less capable forest to sustain its original biodiversity. However, silvicultural operations have potential to minimize the indirect loss of biodiversity caused by road projects.Banko JanakariA Journal of Forestry Information for NepalVol. 26, No. 1, Page: 70-77, 2016

Multi-criteria Evaluation for Ranking Rural Road Projects: Case study of Nepal

This study describes the evaluation criteria involving three aspects of sustainability and finding their importance for ranking rural road projects. The evaluation criteria were derived from a thorough literature review and individual importance was determined via a Google survey among different experts, who have worked on rural roads in Nepal and other 22countries. This survey used Analytic Hierarchy Process.Thirteen sub criteria and three criteria were considered in the question on the survey and almost all of the respondents responded that these criteria and sub criteria were necessary in the criteria for the ranking of rural road projects fromthe point of sustainability. The result of the case study in Dang District of Nepal is also presented

Testing Low-Balling Strategy in Rural Road Procurement

A “low-balling strategy” by bidding contractors has increasingly been recognized as an important issue in public infrastructure procurement. Public works contracts are often imperfect and renegotiated after the contract award. Given the expectation for ex post adjustments, bidders seem motivated to take advantage of the low-balling strategy. This paper analyzes the endogeneity between the bid strategy and ex post adjustments. Using procurement data on rural road projects in Nepal, it shows that the bid strategy and adjustments are determined endogenously in the system. Anticipating cost and time overruns, firms would likely undercut normal bid prices. Then, ex post contract adjustments actually happen, because of their too aggressive bids.

Providing quality infrastructure in rural villages: The case of rural roads in China

When seeking to build high quality and cost-effective infrastructure in rural villages, a fundamental question is: Who is better at doing so? Should the village leadership or a government agency above the village finance and/or manage the construction of the infrastructure project? To answer this question, we surveyed all rural road projects in 101 villages in rural China between 2003 and 2007 and measured the quality and per kilometer cost of each road. According to our analysis, road quality was higher when more of the project funds came from the government agency above. Moreover, projects had lower cost per kilometer when the village leaders managed the road construction. Overall, our findings suggest that to build high quality and cost-effective rural roads village leaders and government agencies should collaborate and each specialize in a specific project role.