COUNTRY | United Arab Emirates
REGION | Asia
SECTOR | transport
SUB-SECTORS | roads
QII Principles | Principle 1 Sustainable Growth & Development, Principle 2 Economic Efficiency, Principle 3 Environmental Considerations, Principle 4 Building Resilience, Principle 6 Infrastructure Governance
QII Sub-Principles | 1: SDGs, 1: Wider economic benefits, 2: Life-cycle costing, 2: Operation and maintenance, 2: Technological innovation, 2: Risk management, 4: Resilience, 4: Disaster risk management, 4: Disaster risk insurance
Overview
Cost: 27M AED per year
Size: 800KM central carriageway of Highways controlling 12 elements to be kept in good condition and level of service
Parties involved (public and private): UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure
Relevant contractual details (type, length etc.): Performance Based Contract, 2 Years, Possibility to be renewed or extended
Context: Based on the study of abroad experiences in the implementation of these type of contracts, an analysis of the current conditions and capabilities of UAE was conducted and it was found that they are similar to the conditions and capabilities of those countries, as in:
- Availability of well trained personnel in order to control and implement the contract
- Appropriate number of KM to be managed
- Increase of number of incidents in the roads
Therefore the decision of implementing a project for Performance Contract was taken, in order to improve the final results of maintenance (time response and quality levels).
Aim(s) of the project:
This contract represents the objective of the ASSET PRESERVATION AND MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT for the following reasons:
It Is a contract that provides services around the clock (24/7) in the form of the activation of the Call Centre for accidents attention and coordination with Police and Civil Defence authorities
The project allows to do road safety audits to determine the sensitive locations (Black Spots) to perform safety activities
Provides a stronger presence for the ministry through the Masar Initiative which consists of road inspectors roaming around the network (24/7) and is directly linked to the maintenance process.
The time response to accidents is significantly decreased compared to the data prior to the application of this contract
Timeline
Key dates including procurement, construction, operations:
Project started in March 2017, renewed in 2019, and will finish in March 2022
Relevance to QII
Fast attention to any incident occurring on the road enhances user and client experience and satisfaction, and gives the Federal Authority a better image to the road users. Moreover, attending the incidents in the road in the fastest way improves road safety and traffic management (which have direct impact in all of the Sustainability components). Maintenance and operation of the roads is improved also since the conditions of the road are maintained within the acceptable limits in a longer term. Furthermore, cooperation with other important administrations is strengthened (for example Ministry of Interior). The management of the contract itself provides evidence and documents to improve as well the Assets Management procedures and analysis for life cycle cost and financial evaluation. In addition, the contract allows new technologies to be implemented for better preserved assets (such cold recycling or asphalt reinforcement).
Benefits
Expected and realised benefits: Attention of the elements contained in the performance mode, can be seen below, with the range of time in which the contractor is allowed to act after the report of the incident, depending of the type of the failure:
- Contract management – during whole year
- Pavements – 48 hours to 1 week
- Shoulders and slopes – 24 hours to 1 week
- Drainage – 48 hours to 1 week
- Sand removal – 24 hours
- Fences and camel grids – 24 hours to 1 week
- Lighting – 2 hours to 1 week
- Road Marking – 7 days to 1 month
- Guardrails and safety barriers – 4 hours to 1 week
- Kerbstones – 4 hours to 1 week
- Traffic signs and road furniture – 8 hours to 1 month
- Vegetation control – 72 hours
- Graffitti and stickers removal – 7 days
The cost of the works performed in the contract is 25% less than the traditional maintenance schemes.
Metrics
The contract performance is measured by the KPIs set for each road component, this obligates the contractor to maintain the level of service of each component or else penalties shall be applied.
This process allows for a better evaluation of the contractors performance.
Name of Institution
Ministry of Finance, UAE