World Bank's expert in transportation planning and engineering gives lecture at AIT

Dr. Asif Faiz, an adviser/consultant with the World Bank in transportation planning and engineering, delivered a lecture entitled “The Promise of Rural Roads” on 30 August 2011 at the Milton Bender Auditorium. All students from the field of Construction, Engineering and Infrastructure Management were encouraged to attend this seminar.

Dr. Faiz’ presentation is based on his keynote address at the 10th International Conference on Low Volume Roads, held in Orlando, Florida in July 2011. Below is the abstract.

Abstract

About 33.8 million km. of roads girdle the earth‘s land mass of 148.9 million sq.km., (an average 0.23 km of road per sq.km of land area); about 61%.of this kilometerage is paved. Nearly all the unpaved roads (13 million km) and an estimated 85% of paved roads (17 million km) are low-volume roads (LVRs) -- with an Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) of less than 1000. These 30 million km of LVRs have a wide variety of geometric and paving standards ranging from barely motor able earth roads to modern high-speed two-lane paved highways. The global asset value (replacement cost) of these LVRs is conservatively estimated at about US$ 7.6 trillion (a lower-bound estimate) equivalent to about 50% of the estimated 2010 Gross Domestic Product of the United States. Beyond this classified system is another realm of designated trails, tracks, and paths as well as minor roads that serve enclave development (mines, industrial estates, agricultural plantations , irrigation schemes, tourism, forestry and so on), that together number into millions of kilometers and also contribute to basic access and mobility.

The presentation reviews the role of rural roads in improving rural connectivity, catalyzing economic growth and reducing poverty, managing natural disasters and man-made crises, sustaining rural livelihoods and enhancing livability. In short the paper highlights the promise of rural roads as a harbinger of opportunity, progress and prosperity. In addition, the presentation discusses what sustainability and its more practical subset--livability, mean in relation to rural roads and how the application of context sensitive solutions to rural roads could help achieve a better balance among the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability.

About the speaker

Dr.Asif Faiz, a Pakistani citizen, is currently an adviser/consultant with the World Bank in transportation planning and engineering. He holds a Ph. D. in transportation engineering from Purdue University and is a Member Emeritus of the Low Volume Roads Committee of the US Transportation Research Board. He has had a distinguished 33 year career in the World Bank including several advisory and management positions. He served as the World Bank's Highways Adviser from 1999-2002, and the Country Manager for Sudan from 2005-08. He is the author of over 60 publications including a book on automotive air pollution. He has received several awards for his professional and research work from ASCE, IRF, Purdue University, and TRB, including the Eldon Yoder Award from the US Transportation Research Board .His professional work covers some 40 countries and he has lived in Pakistan United states, Argentina, Nepal and Sudan.