Financing road network life-cycle costs on sustainable basis is one of the most crucial challenges facing many developing countries, as it requiresa thorough awareness of road network costs and available sector funds. This paper presents a pragmatic cost-revenue model for estimating road network life-cycle costs and expected road revenues. Drawing on examples from Ghana and Namibia, the model calculates performance indicators for measuring the extent to which road users are contributing to the financing of roadnetwork life cycle costs. The findings indicate that road user contributions in Ghana are sufficient to cover only the expected maintenance costs and about three-quarters of the estimated network life cycle costs. User contributions cover only one-half of the total costs when the costs of clearing existing maintenance backlogs are included. By comparing user contributions and actual allocated domestic funds, the model shows that only about50% of what users contribute is actually allocated to the road sector. This disparity between road network life cycle costs and available funds forroad financing is a major development constraint, as needed road improvement projects cannot be undertaken due to lack of funds or under-allocationof available funds. With existing network conditions, it is estimated that 1.5-3.0% and 4.5-6.0% of GDP allocation would be required for annual maintenance and network life cycle costs respectively in both countries. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
Abstract