Road infrastructures play an important role in the economic improvement of the community in the surrounding area. The better speed, flexibility, and accessibility to reach virtually all points are the distinct features that road infrastructure offers compared with other transport systems. In major disasters, road transportation infrastructure is one of the largest sectors which frequently suffer the most damage and losses. Road transport disruptions are also suggested as the critical constraints to providing effective and efficient responses in an emergency, and that the limited access results in high transport costs and procurement lead times. Accordingly, the reconstruction of the road infrastructure is among the highest post-disaster reconstruction priorities and is expected to help accelerate the overall disaster-recovery process. To achieve the maximum benefit of the investment made in the reconstruction, the road infrastructure requires adequate maintenance. Road maintenance offers significant benefits to the road users through the provision of better access, comfort, and lower vehicle operating costs. Road maintenance neglect may therefore result in increased vehicle costs, accelerated deterioration due to the heavier and more frequent traffic, and severe damages requiring early reconstruction of road. In the case of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia, the pledges made to Aceh exceeded the required amount to restore the affected areas to their original conditions. Accordingly, more than 3600 km of roads were reconstructed whilst initially around 2700 km of roads were destroyed by the disaster. Most of the local roads were reconstructed either by the national government or a donor agency, which were transferred back to the local governments for the operational and maintenance needs. As nearly 80% of the road networks in Indonesia are district roads, the overall quality and sustainability of the road infrastructure are significantly dependent on the capacity of the local governments in road maintenance. Accordingly, this study aimed to evaluate the capacity of the local governments in the maintenance of the road infrastructure assets within the context of the post-disaster reconstruction process. In order to achieve the aim and objectives of the research, this study implemented a pure qualitative method. Multiple case study was selected as the research strategy. Three districts xix were included as the case studies, the district of Aceh Besar, Aceh Jaya and Aceh Barat Daya. Semi-structured interviews with high-level officials, policy makers, and the stakeholders of post-disaster road infrastructure reconstruction at the national, provincial, and the local level were conducted as the primary data collection methods. The data was analysed using the content analysis technique, with the aid of NVivo version 10 software. The findings of the research were validated by the means of the literature review and expert interviews. The findings suggest that the road infrastructure was generally neglected from maintenance. The local governments of the case studies lacked the preventive maintenance culture, and their general responses to preserve the road infrastructure were to postpone the maintenance need by using the more expensive high standard pavement types (HMA) and to repair the roads when they have broken. This condition was affected by a number of internal and external factors. The local political condition, the socio-economic condition, the conflict of authorities between government agencies involved in road maintenance, and the poor financial capacity of the districts, were exacerbated by the poor capacity of the road authorities’ personnel. A framework for the reconstruction and maintenance of road infrastructure assets was also suggested indicating the different phases of road infrastructure life cycle in a post-disaster context.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:714222 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Hayat, E. |
| Publisher | University of Salford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://usir.salford.ac.uk/34099/ |
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