Micro-Enterprises

This excellent manual explains the different management issues related to the routine maintenance of paved rural roads by maintenance teams. It forms the basis for the managerial training that the maintenance teams will receive when they start working, as well as for the assistance they will receive during the initial period of their contract. This manual also forms a reference document for the maintenance teams in the management of the team and of the routine maintenance of the rural roads. It should be used together with the Technical Manual for Routine Road Maintenance Teams that forms part of this same document series.

The manual starts by explaining the benefits of maintenance teams over individual workers, after which the management of the team is discussed, including the election of a team leader, and giving special attention to the management of conflicts within the team. This chapter also provides guidelines regarding the financial management. Subsequently, the manual goes into the specifics of the road maintenance contract between the maintenance team and the Communication Bureau, with special attention to the obligations of each partner, the remuneration to be received for work completed and the penalties that may be applied in case of unsatisfactory work. Finally, the manual deals with the planning and organization of the maintenance work over the year, and on a monthly and daily basis. Hereby the road inventory, the timing of activities and the frequency of implementation are used to define the workplans.

Chinese version is available here.

This guide is directed at the staff of the Communication Bureaus in charge of the maintenance of paved rural roads. It explains the benefits of sustainable routine maintenance of these roads, and presents how this may be achieved by contracting labor-based routine maintenance teams formed by local people living along the road.

The first chapter presents the different classifications of rural roads, and explains the deterioration process as a result of the influences of traffic and climate. It subsequently introduces the concepts of preventative and corrective road maintenance, and how these can respectively slow down the deterioration process, and to a certain degree restore the original condition of the road. It also explains why the combination of preventative routine maintenance with timely corrective maintenance is the most cost-effective solution to road conservation, at the same time resulting in better overall road conditions throughout the lifespan of the road. The chapter concludes by describing the different levels of road conservation, and how these complement each other.

The second chapter goes into the details of routine road maintenance, describing the different activities involved, the benefits of organizing the maintenance workers in teams, and the tools and equipment required by them. It continues by introducing the timing of the different activities throughout the year and the frequency with which they should be repeated, as well as the productivity rates for each activity, which indicate how much work a single worker can do in one day. These factors are of great importance in determining the amount of workdays required per year for the maintenance of a kilometer of road, or alternatively how many kilometers one worker can maintain. Another very important factor herein are the specific characteristics of each road (topography, traffic, climate, size of the road reserve, etc.), which determine how much work needs to be done for each activity. The subsequent section therefore introduces the concept of road categories, for which standard values for the required workdays per kilometer per year can be established. The chapter ends by presenting the costs and financing of routine maintenance, the modalities to be used in contracting the maintenance teams, and finally the inspection of their work based on performance indicators.

The third and final chapter deals with the creation of the maintenance teams that carry out the routine maintenance of the rural roads. It starts with the selection process, including the different aspects of carrying out a call for candidates, as well as the criteria to be used in selecting the most suitable candidates. The chapter continues by describing the process of training and accompaniment of the maintenance team, including both the technical training as well as the managerial training. The training is described in greater detail in the Training Guidelines for Communication Bureaus in the Training of Routine Road Maintenance Teams and the technical and managerial elements are dealt with in detail in the Technical Manual for Routine Road Maintenance Teams and the Managerial Manual for Routine Road Maintenance Teams, all of which form part of this same document series. Finally, the process for the legal constitution of the team by means of the road maintenance contract is described.

The Annexes provide overview sheets for the different maintenance activities, including the separate tasks to be executed by the maintenance workers. They also contain several sample documents and forms to be used by the Communication Bureaus.

A Chinese version is available here.

This manual explains the different technical issues related to the routine maintenance of paved rural roads by maintenance teams. It forms the basis for the technical training that the maintenance teams will receive when they start working, as well as for the technical assistance they will receive during the initial period of their contract.

The manual starts by explaining the different road elements that make up a road, and which will need to be maintained by the maintenance team. This is followed by a description of the different types of road conservation, and how these complement the routine maintenance carried out by the maintenance teams. The third chapter introduces the different maintenance activities, the tools and equipment used by the maintenance workers, how much time the different activities take and how often they need to be repeated, as well as how to plan and organize them, and the condition of the road that the maintenance teams need to ensure in order to receive their monthly payments. The final chapter explains the different maintenance activities in detail, describing the different tasks that need to be carried out.

A Chinese version of the report is available for download here.

Report prepared for the World Bank by Gerardo Flintsch and Alejandra Medina from Virginia Tech. 

The outsourcing of road maintenance to micro- and small enterprises under performance-based contracts has been recognized as an effective approach to rural road maintenance in many developing countries. This sees payments for the management and/or maintenance of pavements linked with the contractor successfully meeting or exceeding certain clearly defined minimum performance standards. If structured correctly, sub-national road maintenance PBC programs can effectively maintain pavements, while at the same time, contributing to improved social welfare and local economic conditions.

This report describes a study aimed at reviewing PBC models for the maintenance of sub-national networks in Latin America. The objective of the report is to disseminate the relevant knowledge to other countries interested in building capacities of small and micro contractors and engage them under small-scale PBCs to maintain sub-national roads. The report focuses on labor-intensive practices (micro-enterprises) but also covers contracts that require the use of more conventional maintenance practices.

The study included (1) a critical literature review of relevant documents and reports, (2) identification of suitable agencies for detailed study, (3) a telephone survey of these agencies, and (4) visits to selected agencies in different countries in Central and South America to identify key lessons from failures and successes to be applied to future applications of performance-based road maintenance contracts. The report compares programs in 10 countries and 12 road agencies and present detailed case studies for a subset of these agencies. In general, the programs implemented include two groups of PBCs, projects with a significant social component in economically depressed areas that use mostly cooperative micro-enterprises, and projects focused almost exclusively on improving the service of the roads that also utilize small, medium, and large contractors. Key differences between the two groups of programs include the technical level of the workers and the type of performance indicators used, which have to be consistent with the technical level of the entrepreneurs.

The report presents key lessons learned, associated challenges, opportunities, and achieved results and provides a summary of key recommendations pertinent to performance-based contracting of micro- and small enterprises for municipalities and local governments. The study found that micro-enterprises are a viable option for providing an effective approach for maintaining roads and creating local contracting capacity, especially in remote areas. This practice: (1) improves road maintenance; (2) generally results in cost of the routine maintenance somewhat lower than that of conducting the work by force account, (3) directly and indirectly generates attractive jobs in the rural areas; (4) help secure maintenance funding; (5) rewards initiative; and (5) creates a sense of ownership of the road in the communities adjacent to the road. Performance-based contracts are a practical mechanism for contracting the maintenance of sub-national rural road networks to micro-enterprises. The type of work performed and the remote location of the road segment under consideration make it difficult to measure and control quantities. Furthermore, performance-based contracts have also been implemented successfully for the maintenance of urban street networks to enterprises of different sizes. Hybrid contracts are more commonly used in the programs where street rehabilitation is also included. These contracts typically involve medium- to large-sized contractors. The rehabilitation items are paid based on unit prices, and the routine maintenance is based on outcomes or performance.