In developing countries, an essential requirement for economic growth and  sustainable development is the existence of efficient and reliable infrastructure services in water and sanitation, power and energy, as well as transport and telecommunications sectors. Ethiopia is not an exception; it recognises infrastructure as a key facilitator of economic development.

Currently, the government has embarked on a programme of upgrading and improving existing infrastructural assets, and continues to set aside or search for adequate funds to build new ones. This is, for example, in the form of providing water to rural areas in addition to energy and communications. There is also a big investment on road constructions to facilitate agriculture, trade and tourism. In fact, as a sign for the commitment of linking rural towns with urban centres, the government has even formed what is known as the "Roads Fund" and is encouraging national and international organisations to donate money for road constructions.
 

Expanding the country's road infrastructure has great advantage to achieve development goals. This is because an efficient transportation system is a good ingredient for industrial and trade expansion, providing jobs for economically weak areas.
 

Several regions in Ethiopia have benefited from road construction projects that have been followed by large numbers of jobs created. Some economists, however, argue that road building alone does not necessarily guarantee increased employment and creation of businesses in a region for a long period of time. They would argue similar aggregate levels of development would have occurred without the roads, but that the roads influence the location, speed and degree of economic growth.
 

The Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) - the sole owner of regional highways - is currently engaged in the construction of major roads in almost every corner of the country. As a result, the total length of roads in Ethiopia has increased several folds in the past few years alone. There are now more rural roads than 10 years ago. Unpaved regional highways are being asphalted, single-lane roads are becoming multi-lane, and even bypasses and overpasses are planned to be part of our roads in the near future.

However, the desire to have more roads has increased the ever existing administrative and technical problems observed during road design and constructions in the country. 
 

Administrative problems are reflected in the form of construction delays while technical issues are related to the way roads are deigned. Even with a major shift in budgetary sources from international organisations to the government, a boost in private investment that increases the number of construction equipments in the country, the presence of several foreign companies and construction delays are still very common.
 

The road from Addis Abeba to Jima is probably the best illustration to this. In an attempt to improve contract discipline and scheduling, ERA has started awarding contracts to Chinese firms, shying away from Western companies. Nevertheless, this has brought about very little change. Ironically, construction delays do not even lead to an improvement in the quality of roads.

Finding the causes of delays is probably a research project all by itself. However, delays clearly represent an area of leakage in the management. It is not enough for the managers of ERA to tell contractors to abide by the schedule only during the awarding ceremony. They must introduce a benchmark; anything beyond that must be penalised.

ERA should encourage and force the Chinese to use local staff as much as possible. A cook usually comes as an engineer. If this trend continues, it will be difficult to decrease unemployment. Still worse, we will always depend on them for all sorts of road construction. They must also be told not to import everything from metal nail to machinery.
 

It must be known that the ultimate design of any road is in many ways determined by the topography of the land. Hence, rather than imposing a design that originated from drawing boards inside or outside the country, it is good to carry out enough environmental surveys in the field to develop a layout in accordance with the nature of the site. A design that is suitable for the road in the Rift Valley cannot work for a road in the highlands. The landscape is completely different, so are the soils, geology and climate.

For example, many landslides developed in the highlands after road construction (Debre Sina-Kombolcha highway, Hirna-Kulbi road, etc). Definitely, some of them were results of poor design and construction activities. A ground crack was able to split the Mojo-Awassa asphalted road around Ziway in May 2007 like any other agricultural field. This happened because the design was not specifically based on the nature of soils and hydrology of the area. The service of roads in the north of the country is usually limited mainly as a result of poor material selection. Ruts and potholes are common on the roads of Addis Abeba and everywhere throughout Ethiopia because of poor drainage systems.

Generally, the standard used by ERA for design is not amenable for building roads that can sustain the effect of high amount of rainfalls, unchecked heavy traffic loads and natural hazards. It was simply developed without considering the country's variable environmental conditions.
 

Hence, increasing the number and length of roads and coming back for maintenance soon helps our economy very little. Rather, it is time to think about quality.

I am not talking about constructing expensive tunnels and bridges. But, the roads should be good enough to serve us long with little maintenance. It is time for ERA to revise its standards. This should not be by copy and paste, rather by depending on experiences gained in Ethiopia and by using new theories and methods. In fact, standards must be revised at specified times. ERA should also develop a culture of trusting local consultants by avoiding the traditional thinking of a "foreigner knows everything".

It is also time for ERA to build the capacity of its staff to be sure that their capabilities are always in agreement with visions and objectives. Many of ERA's personnel that oversee major projects are relatively junior. They must be trained so that they can give comments on design reports, discuss with consultants and present some suggestions. It is also better to form a panel of experts made up of individuals from universities, other government and private institutions and ERA itself. By forming such a panel, it is possible to save high maintenance costs with little expenses.

The experts can revise standards, check design reports, look into contract documents, and advise ERA during construction. Generally, for satisfying economic development, we need satisfactory roads and road authority.