The Addis Abeba City Roads Authority (AACRA) has built 255 km of road during the first half of the 2013/14 fiscal year, achieving 54.4pc of the total asphalt, gravel and cobblestone roads planned for the year.
The projects carried out over the six months from July 8, 2013 to January 8, 2014, consumed 1.8 billion Br in capital budget and 31.4million Br in regular budget, according to the Authority’s six-month performance report.
With a budget in excess of 3.83 billion Br, the AACRA enjoys the largest budget share of all institutions under the City Administration.
The ACCRA’s budget for this fiscal year shows a staggering 155pc leap, when compared to the previous year’s budget. Such allocations allow the AACRA to regain priority, after having relinquished its place to the Addis Abeba Water & Sewerage Authority (AAWSA) in previous years.
Unlike the previous year, the City’s Cabinet also rewarded the AACRA by allocating them a budget higher, by 16pc, than the one they requested. The AACRA was not so lucky last year, after getting only a third of its request of three billion Br.
The road projects carried out so far engaged some 20 contractors and consultancy firms in the sector and created jobs for tens of thousands of citizens.
“In total, the projects have generated employment opportunities for over 90,000 people,” Fekade Haile (Eng.), general manager of the Authority, said on Friday, February 7, 2014, during a press briefing about the report at the Authority’s premises, located along the Sar Bet-Mekanisa road.
However, not everything turned out as planned for the Authority. Its efforts to implement some of the projects were met with challenges, which limited its performance, according to the general manager.
One of these is associated to land delineation (rights of way) issues. Another of the challenges limiting the Authority’s ability to function at full capacity was the delay in designs for some of the projects.
Of the 35 asphalt road projects the Authority planned to build with its own workforce, five have not yet entered the implementation phase due to such problems. Similarly, 18 asphalt road projects awarded to contractors faced similar challenges.
Delays in the clearance of electric and telephone cables, as well as the lack of capacity of contractors and engineers were the other constraints faced by the Authority, one of the 77 sectoral institutions in the City Administration, which together will consume 14.8 billion Br.
The road projects that have been built over the six-month period include 9.6 kms of gravel road constructed by the authority’s staff. A total of 126.7 kms of cobblestone roads were also built, including pavements, in condominium sites across the city. This was conducted with the participation of micro & small enterprises (MSEs) operating in the construction sector, the report showed.
For the Authority, however, the performance is quite encouraging. This is especially true when viewed in light of the fact that the first quarter of the fiscal year falls in the rainy season, which is not suitable for road construction, according to Fekade.
“We hope to do better during the remaining half of the budget year,” he said.
When the AACRA was formed as an entity separate from its federal counterpart in 1998, the city’s road network coverage stood at a mere six percent. At the end of the previous fiscal year, the road coverage in the city had reached 15.6 pc.
The Authority aims to further expand the coverage to 17.3pc when the fiscal year comes to a close. Accordingly, it expects to inaugurate 10 major roads as the year progresses.
These include the road from Tor Hailoch to Keranyo; another stretching from Awarie Roundabout to Kebena, along Megenagna, and one from Ayat to the Yerer Goro School, among others.
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