Ethiopian Roads Authority | Road Development Thread

[teklu]

I create this trend to see the road sector development in Ethiopia. From the news coming out of Ethiopia, there are a lot of new road project and rehabilitation of the existing. we can discuss a lot about its trend and the involvement of foreign company's and the role of the home grown one, its ability in creating employment and the benefit Ethiopia is gaining from those projects with respect to technology transfer and capacity building.

[teklu]

[yosef]

here are a few news stories Ive found

Roads Authority Asks for Directions from Districts

The fourth programme will focus on link-roads. One such link road is the one from Enjibara to Jawi, both in the Awi Zone of the Amhara Regional State. One has to pass through a gravel road more than 200km across Gelgele Belese in the Benishangul Gumuz Regional State. The programme will focus on converting to asphalt such gravel link roads, according to the official.

http://www.addisfortune.com/Roads%20...0Districts.htm


Harrar-Kombolcha road goes operational

Harrar, July 3 (WIC) – A gravel road built with more than 13.5 million birr to connect Harrar and Kombolcha towns has gone operational,the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) disclosed.

http://www.waltainfo.com/index.php?o...1036&Itemid=52


China loans Ethiopia $349 mln for road building

[...] construction of a 79 km (49 mile) highway between the capital Addis Ababa and Adama
[..]
The 12 metre wide road will be constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and is due to be completed by 2014.

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNew...5A908420091110


Efforts underway to finalize construction of Addis Ababa-Tarmaber road: ERA

Efforts are underway to finalize due schedule construction of the 169-km Addis Ababa-Tarmaber road launched at a cost of over 1.4 billion Birr, the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) said.
According to documents obtained from ERA's public relations service, 99-km of the road project, which links Addis Ababa and Debreberhan, is being carried out by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC).

http://www.ena.gov.et/EnglishNews/20...c09/102312.htm

[enkelfam]

Staggering 166b Br Requested for Road Sector

The Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) has requested a staggering 166 billion Br for road construction in the next five years, nearly 350pc of the budget it has had for the five-year plan which will expire by the end of this fiscal year.

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) had allocated 239.5 billion Br for road, power, telecommunications, agriculture and housing development for the 2005/06 to 2009/10 five-year plan, with 37.14 billion Br going towards road development. Power and telecommunications had 34.4 billion Br and 37.2 billion Br allocated, respectively. .... Where did the money for ETC go?

MoFED is now receiving plans for the next five years from all government bodies that seek their budgets from the Federal Government. The ministry will collect all the requests and use them for creating the next Plan for Accelerated and Sustainable Development to Eradicate Poverty (PASDEP). In line with this, ERA presented a 65 page document on Monday, February 8, 2009.

“The requested amount is actually a big sum compared to the previous one, but since we are going to start the Universal Road Access Programme (URAP) we had to request that amount,” an official at ERA told Fortune.

ERA’s proposal was first scrutinised by the Ministry of Works and Urban Development (MoWUD), to which the Roads Authority is accountable. Kassu Illala, MoWUD minister, is also board chairman of the authority.

The five-year strategic document by ERA proposes that over the next five years for the country’s road network to grow from 45,000km to 150,000km; including the 87,000km that will interconnect the 18,000 kebeles nationwide.

“The requested amount will be jolting to the committee since ERA is requesting over 30 billion Br for a single budget year,” a budget expert at the MoFED told Fortune.

All such proposals will be considered by the Macroeconomic Committee chaired by Sufian Ahmed, MoFED minister. Members of the committee include Neway-Christos Gebreab, economic advisor to the Prime Minister; Girma Birru, minister of Trade and Industry (MoTI); and Teklewold Atnafu, governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE). This committee is entrusted with the task of overseeing the production of the next PASDEP.

“We have taken lessons from the previous PASDEP and believe that the budget proposals to be submitted by the different offices are expected to increase, since the price of materials has escalated,” the macroeconomic expert told Fortune.

The macroeconomic committee has directed all government offices to submit their own five-year strategic plans for the next PASDEP. They were given until February 7, 2010, to submit these documents. So far, however, only the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Federal Environmental Protection Agency and ERA have done so.

OK, first of all I am not an Economist or a policy maker, but does the allocation of the federal government sound sensible?
My guess is the roads authority will recieve about 90% of what it asked for, but no more.

http://www.addisfortune.com/Staggeri...d%20Sector.htm

[abesha]

I don't know if it's reasonable or not. It would depend on the overall size of the budget and what type of roads we're talking about.
With that said, they are planning to go from 45 000km to 150 000km. That's almost an increase of 3.5 times in just 5 years. Super ambitious (not that I'm complaining!)
We need mass investments like this. With that said, I wish they would invest more in railroads. I know they are working on it, but they should be as aggressive as the Roads Authority. We need rails NOW.

[Vildana]

Mind you the ethiopian PASDEP budget b/n 2005 to 2009 was 240 billion.
the next PASDEP budget will after inflation regulation will probably be around 500-700 billion.ERA previously got around 8-13 billion per year .now it is asking around 33billion and will most probably get around 20-25 billion per year.
the question is will ERA have the capacity to absorb this much amount of money, i doubt that.ERA always had a problem in implementation .
i think the govt. will start with a warm up budget and increas it gradually.
i like the aggressivnes of this govt. when it comes to infrustructure devpt.
it is the only way to go.
by the way they are planing to connect the 18 000 woredas.that i call my friend ambitious, way to go and bravo.

obs. this is just qualified speculation.

[abesha]

ERA’s budget doubled

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) has doubled the budget of the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) for the next five years.

The ERA had requested about 150 billion birr for the next five year third phase of the Plan for Accelerated and Sustainable Development to Eradicate Poverty (PASDEP), but the government allocated about 70 billion birr, double the roads budget in the previous five year PASDEP.

The downwards revision of ERA’s budget was due to an order from MoFED about what to include in the request.

“The first budget request included the regional road authorities’ projects, but the ministry ordered the federal authority to exclude their requests from the proposal,” a source explained.

The regional road offices undertake projects within their borders, while the ERA has a mandate to control projects that cross a region or a road that is at federal level.

In PASDEP II, the 35 billion birr budget to improve the road network was the highest amount for any development activity.

“We have big projects planned for the coming PASDEP, but the reduced budget will force us to minimise some of them,” a source at the authority told Capital.

A source said every agency will know the amount it has secured for this PASDEP in the first week of May.

ERA has had a decade of receiving the largest budgets in order to implement the Road Sector Development Programs (RSDPs). The Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health have received the next largest allocations.

For 2010/2011 fiscal year, authority requested 15 billion birr from MoFED a month ago, but has not yet had any response. ERA says it needs about 12 billion from the treasury and the rest from external sources, such as donors, loan providers and the Federal Road Fund, according to a source.

Information obtained from MoFED indicates that the authority’s budget hearing will be held tomorrow, Monday April, 26.

A year ago, ERA requested 13 billion birr from the government treasury. MoFED allocated about nine billion, not including the supplementary budget that was given after six months. In the same year the authority demanded 15.6 billion birr for over 190 ongoing and new projects.

Although the road authority receives the biggest cut, it has often complained that financial shortages have led to delays.

Next year’s federal government budget has not yet been officially announced.

http://www.capitalethiopia.com/index...-news&Itemid=4

[abnet]

well i think its agood news but compare with what ERA asked and should get its very low. ethiopia built roads aggressivly in the past 10 years ,but b/se the sector has been ignored for so long time that we have realy a long way to go.

[abesha]

Yes, it's lower than what ERA asked, but it's still double of what they had from 2005-2010 so it's not so bad.
Also, I hope the gov uses the money not given to ERA to develop the rail system. It's really badly needed.

[yosef]

Here are a few bridge projects from Addis, some are pedestrian in nature; one is for both pedestrian and car traffic. Other bridges from Addis Ababa can be posted here in the future as well.
___________________________________________________________________

Pedestrian Bridges- These will be built in several locations

Render



Arat Kilo U/C

Construction of a pedestrian overpass bridge is being built by Sintech Ethiopia Plc, the company employed by the Addis Abeba City Roads Authority. The picture, taken on May 12, 2010, shows one of the bridges located at Arat Kilo on the road that goes to Sidist Kilo. The project was started nine months ago, according to Mekonnen Melese (Eng), the project manager. There will be another bridge at Arat Kilo, over the road that leads to Piassa and two more at St. Giorgis Church Square, one on the road that leads to Belay Zeleke (Addisu Gebeya) and another on the road that leads to Sidist Kilo (Afincho Ber), he said. ACME Designers and Consultants is handling the architectural and structural design, and Esset Construction Plc is completing the civil engineering. The four pedestrian overpass bridges are expected to be completed at a cost of about six million Br, according to Mekonnen.

Source

Number of Bridges: 4

Bridge Location: Arat Kilo, Sidist Kilo, St. Giorgis Church Square

Use: Pedestrian

Status: U/C

--------------------------------------------------------------------------



GTZ Study for a bridge across Ketchene River/Valley in Addis Ababa




the project specifics






There is one other design proposed for this project and it looks pretty similar to the above one,. They are both cable stay bridges with minor differences in ascetics. Secondly, Im not sure if this is meant to replace what is in that location presently or if is something brand new altogether.

Number of Bridges: 1

Bridge Location: over Ketchene in the center of Addis

Use: Highway/Road with pedestrian walkways (4 lanes, 2 sidewalks)

Status: N/A

[abnet]

loan secured from the world bank for the road sector

Ethiopia, World Bank ink loan agreement
Addis Ababa, June 3, 2010 (Addis Ababa) - Ethiopia and the World Bank signed here on Thursday a 100 million US dollar loan agreement

According to the agreement, Ethiopia will be able to fill its financial shortfall in completing various road projects.

Finance and Economic Development State Minister, Ahmed Shide and World Bank Director for Ethiopia and the Sudan, Kenichi Ohashi signed the accord here on the premise of the ministry.

As per the agreement, the stated sum will be used to fill shortage of funds in the execution of on-going road projects that occurred as a result of different variation orders and increased quantities as well as to mitigate the effects of high price escalation and inflation.

The loan, which is an additional financing for the Second Phase of the Road Sector Development Program (RSDP II), will contribute to fully complete road projects under the program, according to the accord.

“It is satisfying to see that Ethiopia’s road network has expanded and improved in condition since 1997. … we will keep supporting Ethiopia in further ensuring that the improved roads are maintained,” the Bank’s statement issued on the occasion quoted, Yoshimichi Kawasumi, World Bank Task Team Leader, as saying.

(c) The Ethiopian News Agency

[abesha]

AA Roads - pic of the road from Gotera to Meskel Square under construction (Debre Zeit menged).

The Addis Abeba City Roads Authority (AACRA) issued a tender for category three and above consultants to design 25 new roads with a total length of 57.8km.

The AACRA already has the designs for 80 other roads in the city, most of which are already under construction, according to Fekadu Haile (Eng), AACRA’s general manager. Six of these roads, constructed at a cost of 570 million Br, were inaugurated on April 24, 2010.

“Roads in the city are constructed on a priority basis as funds are made available,” Fekadu said. “We decide which road to build based on their impact on the traffic flow in the city.”

Roads around housing projects and in areas that are being redeveloped will be given priority by the authority, according to Fekade.

The authority plans to have the designs for all city roads available ahead of time. It needs 16 billion Br for road construction projects for the next five years, the AACRA says. It had requested 2.6 billion Br for 2009/10, but was granted only one billion Birr.

[yosef]

Multi-Billion Birr Addis Ababa-Adama Asphalt Concrete Road Construction Launched: Roads Authority

Addis Ababa, June 25, 2010 (Addis Ababa) Work on the construction of the Addis Ababa Asphalt concrete Road was launched, the Ethiopian Roads Authority announced here on Friday.

Public Relations Head with the Authority, Samson Mamo told ENA on that the road is being built with eight billion Birr secured from the Ethiopian government and loan from Chinese bank.

The road will have walls to be constructed adjacently covering 80 kms.

The road will enable to pass six vehicles at a time. The road is being constructed by a Chinese construction firm known as Communication Construction.

According to Samson, the construction of the road will be completed in a period of four years.

The construction of the road will enable to avoiding traffic congestion along the route, which is the busiest in the country.

source: govt. New Agency


previous news on same item: Addis-Adama Expressway

[enkelfam]

8 Billion Birr ( $550 million US) 6 lane high way construction from Addis Ababa to Adama town.

http://www.ethiotube.net/video/9718/...o-Adama-begins

[enkelfam]

Sunshine Construction inaugurated the 148.2km Nejo-Jarso-Begi gravel road in Western Wollega Zone, Oromiya, on Saturday, June 26, 2010, constructed at a cost of over 200 million Br.

The inauguration of the road, for which Sunshine was paid 1.4 million Br per kilometre, was graced by Abadulla Gemeda, president of the Oromiya Regional State, and Kassu Illala (PhD), minster of Works and Urban Development (MoWUD). The event took place at the Dabut River, which is a tributary of the Abay River, located 86km from Nejo.

The road from Nejo to Begi had an existing 52km narrow, dry season road. People used to travel from Nejo to Begi through the town of Tongo in Benshangul-Gumuz Regional State. The new road, that connects 10 towns, is seven metres wide outside of the towns and 10 metres inside the towns.

Sunshine finished the road in four and a half years, one year longer than the original plan, because it had to shift some of its personnel and equipment to the Fincha-Lemlem-Berha Project to maintain the road that was damaged by a landslide after its completion.

Relocation of residents who had right-of-way also took sometime, according to Abesolom Demeke, head of road construction at Sunshine.

The project employed 900 daily labourers from the surrounding area and close to 50 professionals and cost a total of 204 million Br.

The most expensive road in Ethiopia is the 33km one being constructed by Yencomad from Yegdanber to Gobensa, which is the third portion of the third lot in the Modjo-Erer-Arerti-Gobensa road which costs 23 million Br per kilometre. Yencomad was awarded the road on January 8, 2010 for about 755 million Br



http://www.addisfortune.com/Sunshine...ega%20Road.htm

[yosef]

nice. Thanks for that one enkelfam.


ERA secures 144miln birr for the sliding Abbay gorge road

By Mieraf Birhane

The Ethiopian Road Authority (ERA) is to permanently rehabilitate the Goha Tsion-Dejen road with a 144 million birr grant provided by the Government of Japan. The road has suffered from severe land slides over the years because the Abay Gorge which it stretches through is prone to such phenomenon. ERA is to set up a permanent project office at the gorge to closely monitor the ill-fated road.

State minister of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED), Ahmed Shide, and Japanese Ambassador to Ethiopia Kinichi Komano signed the grant agreement at the head office of the ministry yesterday.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will handle the procurement of essential construction equipment like excavators, bulldozers, graders, dump trucks and others which are going to the project office at the gorge. The grant will help to upgrade the capacity of ERA to enable it prevent and address the recurrent land slide problem at Abay Gorge.

Ahmed Shide said on the occasion that Ethiopia is one of the lowest road-networked countries in the world and that an assistance of such sort was highly appreciated.

It is to be remembered that the construction of the 43-km Goha Tsion-Dejen asphalt road and a new bridge built over the Blue Nile River was carried out at a cost of 319 million birr also secured from the Japanese government.

EthiopianReporter


Thank you Japan very much for following up on this road. Very important road for the northern corridor of Ethiopia. Sad that landslides threatened its well being, hopefully the repairs go well.

[Yoniii]

Not development news, but it's kinda related.

Roads Authority to Morph Next Week

The corporate entity is to function on a profit basis

The Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) is about to start a trial period of six months for a major organizational transformation starting on July 8, 2010.

The change in its organizational structure comes as a result of a business engineering process (BPR) which recommended the split of the ERA’s functions into regulatory and operational entities. As a result, a draft regulation and directive for the establishment of an enterprise/corporation have been prepared, according to Samson Wondimu, information and Public Relation head at the ERA.

Currently, the ERA has three major departments- the Engineering and Regulatory Department (ERD), the Operation Department (OD), and the Human Resource and Financial Department (HRFD).

There are five divisions under the ERD with specific responsibilities. These are the planning and Programming Division, the Construction Construct implementation Division, the District Engineering Division, the Road Network Management Division and Engineering Service Procurement and Design Division. The ERD is the department that will become the regulatory body, or authority, once restructured.

The OD has two divisions including the Own Force Contractor Division (OFCD) and the District Road Maintenance Contractor Division (DRMCD). The OFCD mainly works on the construction of roads and the DRMCD on the maintenance thereof.

Close to 90 Pc of the construction of roads is currently given to local and international construction firms, with a little more than 10pc going to the OFCD of the ERA. However, the DRMCD takes the lion’s share of the maintenance of the roads9 which is more than 90 pc of the total maintenance, a reliable source told Fortune. This is the part which will become the enterprise/ corporation and each entity will have its own human resource and financial department.

The ERA is now in the process of assessing and evaluating its assets to be divided between the two entities. A financial analysis and forecasting that was done showed that the enterprise/corporation can be profit making enterprise in the next five years.

The corporate entity will function on a profit basis, like any state enterprise, bidding for road project contracts against both local and international construction companies. Such a state owned corporation will handle the construction of roads in area where there is a security risk that private and international companies are usually unwilling to undertake, an official of the ERA told Fortune.

The ERA management has already discussed both implementation strategy documents prepared for the operations and regulatory bodies.

The ERA requested around 15 billion Br for the next fiscal year but was granted only 12.8 billion Br of the federal Budget. It is still single largest allotment given to one authority. The new regulatory body will take over the administration of the budget allocated by the government.

The national road network is expected to reach 49,000Km at the end of this fiscal year. Sufian Ahmed, minister of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) told members of Parliament on June 3, 2010 currently, the ERA has an estimated 15,000 employees, of which more than 90pc will be under the corporation while the rest are to remain under the administration of the authority.

[Hersh]

Ethiopia to build 82,500-km road network

August 22, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – Ethiopian government said today that it will invest billions of dollars over the coming five years to enhance the road sector development program of the country.

The Ethiopian Road Authority (ERA) said it will construct 82,500 kilometers of roads across nation with a cost of 122 billion Birr (some 8.9 Billion USD) during the specified period of time.

The program is part of a five-year development and transformation plan. Ethiopia sees its economy to grow by 15% and believes it will bring an end to its dependence on foreign food.

Ethiopian Road Authority Director General, Zaid Woldegebriel, during a meeting held to discuss the five-year road sector development program, said currently country’s total road coverage stands at 49,000 kilometers and this figure will be boosted up to 136,000 kilometers, under the new plan, in five years.

However, she said that there is financial short to meet the plan citing the already secured four Billion USD to accomplish the road expansion plan.

According to state Ministry of Work and Urban Development, the Horn of Africa’s country has spent some 3 billion USD to construct over 10 thousand kilometers of roads during the past five years, a first phase of the ten-year Road Sector Development Programme.

Ethiopia’s Road Sector Development Programme aims to rehabilitate, expand and upgrade the road network which still remains in poor state.

Ethiopia has registered an average 10.2% economic growth for the past seven years in a row and the road sector development program that is believed to further shoulder the economic growth of the country via transport links.

The major donors to the programme are World Bank, the European Union (EU) and the Department for International Development, UK ( DFID) In June, The Ethiopian government and the World Bank signed a $100 million loan agreement to support the massive road construction projects in the country.

(ST)

-Sudan Tribune

[Simfan34]

So they'll increase the amount of roads by 200%? Nice!

[enkelfam]

Meskel Sq - Bole Road project

The Chinese Import and Export (EXIM) Bank is to finance the stylish Meskel Square-Bole (Africa Avenue) asphalt road upgrading project, which comprises three passover bridges and two road junctions. The project is also expected to commence this budget year after over two years of delay.
Fekade Haile (Eng), General Manager of Addis Ababa City Roads Authority AACRA, told Capital that the authority has agreed to the loan conditions of the Chinese bank EXIM. He said that the loan contract will be concluded in the near future while other sources claim that the finance will be secured within a few months.
Financial problems and lack of interested international contractors that would take local currency for a means of remuneration have been major reasons for the delay, after the Addis Ababa City Roads Authority AACRA canceled its contract with Enyi Construction citing the latter’s inability to undertake such a huge project.
The situation forced the city roads authority to postpone its plan to another budget year as the payment system and lack of sufficient funds meant the project could not be carried out that year. The city roads authority has since then been looking for ways to acquire the foreign currency needed and its efforts with EXIM bank have finally paid off.
Capital has learned that the construction firm that is to undertake the project will be identified until the coming month now that a source of fund has been acquired. Fekade said that EXIM will be involved in the contractor identification process. Other sources have also told Capital that the authority has been negotiating with CRBC, a Chinese construction firm registered in Ethiopia, about the project construction. CRBC is one of the major international contractors that participate in road construction projects in both Addis Ababa and the federal level.
AACRA wants a strong, capable contractor to undertake the project and complete it in a period of one year, because it is the main gate from the international airport.
The Meskel Square-Bole (Africa Avenue) road is a 4.1km long and 40m wide road project. The project design has three passovers in Olympia, Wello Sefer and in front of Worbek Building, with the latter incorporating a 300m long bridge. Near each bypass, there would be side roads on each side as well. Information on how much the project will cost has not yet been made available.

http://www.capitalethiopia.com/index...-news&Itemid=4