Assisting the Algerian administration in the implementation of a road asset management system. The role of a twinning project financed by the EU.

Abstract

This paper presents a project, completed in October 2018, which was developed for an approximately three-year period by a French-Portuguese Consortium. Its main purpose was to assist the Algerian National Body for Technical Control of Public Works (CTTP) in the implementation of a decision support system for the management of the national road network and bridges. It was a “twinning project”, i.e., a cooperation instrument made available by the European Union through an Association Agreement Program with Algeria. Moreover, this paper reports from the perspective of the Portuguese partner, the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC), the main results obtained and the lessons learnt from this interesting opportunity for cooperation and for exchanging technical knowledge. Within the project, three main interrelated subject areas were addressed: 1 – A data-base and a maintenance management system for road pavements; 2 – A data-base and a maintenance management system for bridges; 3 – A traffic counting and vehicles weighing system. It involved around 40 experts from the partners, as well as technical staff from CTTP, and comprised not only local missions, but also training actions and technical visits to Europe. The overall result was considered to be highly positive as recognized by the project supervision bodies and by the local authorities engaged. Since large investments in road construction were made during the last few decades in Algeria, attention is now being increasingly directed to the maintenance and rehabilitation of these assets, with a view to ensure the provision of an adequate service to road users.