Road improvement

In addition, the Government of Jordan (GOJ) has accepted responsibility for post-project road maintenance. Assessment of the project"s impact is impeded by the absence of key data (e.g., accidents on each road and vehicle user costs) and a current logframe. Nonetheless, it can be assumed that the improved quality of the roads has reduced both transit times and the cost of operating and maintaining vehicles. The cost of maintaining two of the roads (Mafraq-H5 and Desert Highway) has declined 10% and 37.5%, respectively. The overloading of heavy vehicles, a dangerous practice which increases the need for road repairs, makes it difficult to analyze the effect of the road improvements on highway safety. To address this longstanding and serious problem, the GOJ has passed a weight limit law and the Ministry of Public Works has purchased eight portable scales and trained personnel to enforce the law. The GOJ has also investigated the possibility of an international tonnage-per-axle agreement to resolve the problem of trucks overloaded in other countries using Jordanian roads. Although traffic counts are sparse, a comparison of the numbers of passenger cars and heavy goods vehicles using project-funded roads before and after the improvements indicates that transport of both workers and goods have been facilitated and thus have had a positive, although difficult to measure, effect on GNP. A key lesson learned is that the Fixed Amount Reimbursement (FAR) method is an effective development tool where in-country materials and service are utilized. It is recommended that USAID/J ensure that baseline data is made available and that means for collecting evaluation data are developed and added to the project design.