IFRTD - the International Forum for Rural Transport and Development

Shell Sustainable Bitumen is hosting an Affordable Rural Roads Symposium in El Salvador on 22 August. The improvement of rural roads is seen as a key contributor to a wider national development programme in El Salvador. There is a rural roads programme with a total budget of US$69 M (funded by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration) to roll out 14 projects. However the actual cost of the traditional solutions has been increased due to the rise in energy costs. This is seen as a blocker for some projects and/or can reduce the number of kilometers that can be constructed. The Ministry of Transport is very concerned and is willing to seek more cost effective solutions for rural gravel roads. There is a real sense of urgency to address this issue. The symposium is therefore an opportunity to gather together key opinion formers and stakeholders to discuss this important subject, developing ideas around finding cost effective and affordable solutions for the development of rural roads and ways of gaining investment to improve social and environmental benefits for local communities.

Some of the topics up for discussion are:

Social and economical benefits for rural sector development
Functional requirement (all weather road, design life, …)
Technical alternatives for sealing gravel roads towards conventional solution including specification, whole life costing
Project management process, including decision making, evaluation, biding process, implementation

Speakers and guests include officials from the World Bank, the IFRTD, and International Slurry Seal Association, and from the Transport and Environmental Ministries of El Salvador, representatives from local municipalities and construction companies.

For further information, please contact Victor.Rheinboldt(at)shell.com