The Albanian Development Fund is an implementing agency of the Albanian Government, which accomplishes its activity with the purpose of strengthening and supporting the local government towards a sustainable development. The Fund is established since 1993 as an independent implementing agency for the project on the alleviation of poverty in rural regions; a project which was initiated by the World Bank in cooperation with the Albanian Government and which included loan& credit components as well.

ADF is mainly specialized at the strengthening and supporting of the local government, as well as at the development of the communities through the rehabilitation of primary infrastructure. It has been three years now since ADF along with the Ministry of Transports and the Ministry of Interior have been making a substantial contribution on the improvement of the rural infrastructure not only through the rehabilitation of the key regional axes but also through the setting up of a methodology for the prioritization and maintenance of these road sections in the coming years. The main project which is being carried out by ADF with the above mentioned objective is the project entitled “The Rehabilitation of the Secondary and Local Roads”  supported by World Bank and a broad group of donors.

The objective of the project is the access improvement in the main services and economic markets, via the provision of asphalted roads for the inhabitants in the hinterlands of the project roads.

The project is attaining this goal through (i) the improvement of the priority sections in the secondary (regional) road network all over Albania; (ii) the improvement of the local road sections all over Albania; (iii) introduction of the private sector for the maintenance of the secondary and local road network; (iv) and finally the strengthening of the local road network management.

The project impact is on:

a) Proportional reduction in the vehicle travel time;

b) Improved access to health and educational facilities as well as better access to the regional markets;

c) Proportional increase in traffic volume on project roads after the project completion;

d) Proportional change in the perception of the road users regarding the quality of project roads.

• Project cost and components

This program encompasses about 1,500 km of secondary and local roads totaling an estimated amount of US$ 400 million for the overall program.

The projects have started to be implemented since December 2007 and for the time being they include the most important regional axes in twelve (12) Qarqe of the country. Currently, there are under the implementation process about $100 million U.S out of which $20 million U.S are financed by the World Bank, $15 million by OPEC Fund, $5 million U.S by the Albanian Government, $56 million U.S or the equivalent to 40 million euros by CEB and finally $11 million U.S or equivalent to 8 million euros by IPA 2008 Program. At the same time, financing agreements are being drafted with IDB for about 40 million U.S dollars, for 50 million euros with EBRD and EBI, and for approximately 70 million U.S dollars with the Japanese Government.

Project components

There are distinguished three main project components:

First component – Infrastructure works for the improvement of the sections in the secondary (regional) road network.

The civil works associated with the improvement of the secondary (regional) road network are being financed by this component. The interventions of this component consist in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of road sections which are deteriorated. Under reconstruction, the whole pavement is rebuilt with new asphalt and the necessary sub-layers. Whereas the rehabilitation works consist in the construction of a new base and new asphalt.

Second component – Civil works associated with the improvements of the local road network. Due to a deteriorated condition of the local road network, the interventions under this component consist in rehabilitation and reconstruction. As in the case of the secondary road projects, the works under reconstruction consist in the pavement of new asphalt and necessary sub-layers, and those of rehabilitation include the rebuilding of a new base and the pavement of new asphalt. Due consideration has been given to road safety and environmental protection through application of contemporary parameters and standards.  

Third component – Implementation and Institutional support

This component finances the provision of technical assistance, purchasing of goods as well as financing of operational costs which facilitate the implementation of the project and especially the capacity building of ADF and local government.

• Feasibility Study

The appraisals of the priority sections of the secondary and local roads are conducted by using a two-phase process including a multi-criteria analysis.

The first phase consists in the commitment of the LGU-in in the identification and submission of the their priority objects to be financed by the program, projects which in return are going to be evaluated  and rated by ADF according to a set of published criteria which are similar to those being used in the programs of competitive grants.

These criteria are as follows:

1. Rate of expected impact on the socio-economic development; Rate of project compliance with local/regional strategy.

2. Rate of impact on the reduction of povertyand access growth at the basic services;

3. Number of direct beneficiaries;

4. Physical conditions of the road to be constructed.

The selected sub-projects are appraised according to a contemporary approach of cost-benefit or cost- effectiveness, pursuant to the World Bank models.

The second phase that has been undertaken is  the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) which consists in comparing a given base case or “do minimum” alternative to the proposed reconstruction or “project scenario”  alternative. The result of this analysis indicates a 16% Rate of Economic Return (RER).

• Project Progress

a) The first Work Plan

The first Work Plan has started in the course of the year 2008. It consists in the reconstruction of 12 key regional axes in twelve (12) Qarqe with funding by World Bank, OPEC Fund and Albanian Government, including project designing, supervision and technical assistance as well. The selection of the sections to be financed is achieved through a broad participation of beneficiaries. ADF requested that the 12 Qarqe should submit a list of three main priorities per each respective Qark and it accomplished their appraisal and selection in the terrain by cooperating with the local authorities. ADF, in cooperation with an international consulting company (Roughton International) conducted a complete analysis of the traffic, transport and economic benefit. Meanwhile four (4) other road projects are being financed by IPA 2008, respectively in Gjirokastra, Durresi, Lezha and Shkodra Regions.

b) The list of priorities and sections to be financed.

During this period ADF has cooperated with an international consulting company “Roughton International” (RI) on the inventorying of 3,500 km of secondary and local roads based on their functionality.

ADF possesses at present the data on the transport economic evaluation for 1,500 km of road or on 525 road sections which are considered as main rural network. With the purpose of accomplishing this task, a series of activities have been undertaken such as: measuring of traffic and its volume per each vehicle category, measuring of difficulty in road traversing and physical condition of each section, etc. All these data are analyzed by software which processes feasibilities per each road section by providing a real-time prioritization of investments and respective costs.

c) Supervision of infrastructure works

ADF has acquired a considerable experience at the supervision of infrastructure works. Given the high technical standards necessitated by this project, the cooperation with a supervision company of solid international reputation was deemed necessary. ADF in cooperation with this company is carrying out the supervision of on-going projects, which extend over 1,500 km of road.

• Project sustainability

Besides investments on road reconstructions, ADF has ensured the adequate technical support and  capacity building through trainings in the maintenace of investments for local government. ADF can provide the appropriate tools and programs which assist in the planning of costs and time interventions on road maintenace.

• Information on the active projects

In the table hereunder are given  the main projects that ADF is carrying out in the framework for the improvement of rural infrastructure.

ROMAPS Program

ROMAPS is the copyright name of Roughton International’ Maintenance Planning System. The system is designed to provide Road Asset Management capabilities without the need for extensive institutional resources and sophisticated survey and support facilities.

The system consists of a set of methodologies and procedures as the Maintenance Management Methodology (MMM), and a set of database applications (DBMS).

The MMM defines the underlying maintenance approach. It consists of methods and procedures to carry out all common maintenance strategies.

Generically, these strategies are:

• Minor Emergency Repairs (MER)
• General Routine Maintenance (GRM)
• General Periodic Maintenance (GPM)
• Specific and Preventative Minor Works and Projects (SMP)

The procedures provide methodologies for data collection, budgeting, planning and implementing the various maintenance strategies. Key routines are supporting by the data, routines and programs that make up the DBMS. In particular, the Maintenance Management Methodology (MMM) procedures guide the following processes:

• Collecting inventory, condition and resource data
• Using customized look-up tables to estimate workloads repair tame and maintenance cost.
• Utilizing the repair estimates to prepare detailed budget estimates.
• Once budget allocations are known, dissecting the allocation to fund individual repair.
• Calculating affordable task repair times based on task repair allocations and resource costs.
• Prepare resource utilization programs known in ROMAPS as Year Planners.

ROMAPS is used to perform the following functions:

• Preparing budget estimates for emergency, routine, recurrent, periodic and preventative maintenance,
• Producing routine and recurrent work programs according to budget ceilings and priorities,
• Monitoring and recording the work done.

The system is being implemented in Albania for the active network of secondary and local roads.