Thursday, April 06, 2017

 


Madam President, members of the legislature, members of the judiciary, members of the cabinet and other Government officials, members of the diplomatic corps, Madam Margaret Kilo-Resident Representative of the AfDB, the traditional leaders, chiefs and elders, the peace loving people of River Gee and Maryland counties, the fourth estate, ladies and gentlemen.


The laterite or dirt road between Fish Town and Harper undergoes tremendous wear and tear during yearly rain seasons.

Because of this fact, in December of 2007, the Government of Liberia submitted to the Bank a financing request for the Labor Base Public Works Project, which was approved with an Initial Grant of approximately $25 Million Dollars for the rehabilitation of the Fish Town to Harper Road including the rehabilitation and construction of 10 schools, 10 health facilities and 10 boreholes within the River Gee and Maryland counties, capacity building and other social benefits which was signed on February 29, 2008.

After the completion of the rehabilitation of the Fish Town - Harper Road in 2012, there was limited maintenance of the road which defeated the sustainability mantra of the African Development Bank.


The Government of Liberia again submitted to the Bank a financing request for the upgrading of the 130 km road from laterite to bitumen standard and the Board approved the $64 MD loan in September of 2013 for the FTHRP Phase I.

The paving of Fish Town-Harper Road was planned in two phases. The first phase included the paving of the 50 km section from Harper to Karloken and the Maintenance of 80 km gravel section with associated components, including, Construction Supervision, Monitoring and Evaluation, Financial Audit, Technical & Road Safety Audit, HIV / AIDS, malaria, Ebola and Gender Sensitization, Road Reform and Capacity building.

Phase I is well underway with a targeted completion date of December 2018. Work completion to date is 37%.

Phase II consists of the paving of the section from Karloken to Fish Town, the 80 km gravel road that was being maintained under the Phase I project.

Because this 130 km stretch of road is a spur on the Trans-West African Highway Corridor that eventually will open up the south eastern region of Liberia to Cote d’Ivoire, the Mano River Union through its objective to boost the post-conflict economic recovery of the MRU basin, by improving road infrastructure, got involved and the project took a regional dimension and is now called the Mano River Union Road Development and Transport Facilitation Programme.

This Programme will be jointly financed by the Bank, the Governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea and ECOWAS.

The key expected outcomes at the end of 2020 will be: 276.35 km of road,  a 200-metre bridge over the Cavalla River, 2 joint border posts (JBP), 7.8 km of urban roads, 70 km of feeder roads, 2 bus stations, 5 markets, 5 rehabilitated schools, 3 health centres, construction of a counselling and social reintegration centre and 3 boreholes.

ECOWAS will be responsible for the execution of the "transport facilitation" component in accordance with community regulations in force. It will supervise the construction of the 2 JBPs and the bridge over the Cavalla River.

To ensure sustainability, the buzz word of the Bank, the Bank has emphasized the need for and provided financial support of the Road Sector Reforms, which includes the establishing of a Roads Authority or Roads Agency (the entity responsible for the maintenance of roads); the establishing of the Road Fund (the funding arm or revenue stream mechanism for the support of the Roads Authority); the establishing of the Axle Load Management Framework; the establishing of a Road Safety Council and finally, defining the new mandate of the Ministry of Public Works after establishing the Roads Authority.

In short, Madam President, fellow citizens, this is the story of the Mano River Union Road Development and Transport Facilitation Programme that you Madam President are about to perform the Ground Breaking right outside this City Hall.

I thank you.

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