FHWA assistance to Russia

Public Roads, Spring, 1994 by Bert Schacknies

Background

The United States government has been standing behind the reformist platform of the Russian government since August 1991. The U.S. Congress has provided the legislative authorization for the Department of State (DOS) and other government agencies to assist in the reform process in Russia. The "Freedom for Russia Act," which authorizes DOS to provide assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), also includes a provision to provide support for the CIS transport sector. However, independent of the DOS foreign assistance authority, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has authority to provide technical assistance throughout the developing world under provision 6003 of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991. DOT is cooperating with DOS and the Trade and Development Agency to help Russia evolve toward a free-market economy and to promote the resulting opportunities for the export of goods and services by the U.S. private sector.

Russia's transportation system--specifically its highways--were built without using competitive procurement procedures, modern construction techniques, or rigorous quality control measures. They were also constructed with little consideration of changing consumer demands, market-based energy costs, or efficiency. Up to 70 percent of all freight is moved by rail, including much of the short-haul freight typically carried by truck in Western Europe and the United States.

With the development of a private sector and the privatization of local trucking enterprises, freight is shifting from the slow-moving and increasingly expensive rail carriers to the highways. Also, the number of privately owned vehicles on the roadways is increasing. Russia's road system, already crumbling in many areas, will be pushed to the breaking point under this increase in vehicular traffic, if massive rehabilitation and repair work do not begin soon.

The Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) expertise and experience is expected to be most useful to the Russians. Over the past 60 years, FHWA, through its Office of International Programs, has contributed to the road programs of more than 70 countries. Not only does FHWA share practical information about building roads; it also serves as a model of a federalist agency as Russia decentralizes its Soviet-era bureaucracy

FHWA Cooperation with the World Bank

FHWA is currently providing technical assistance in support of the Russian Federal Highway Department's (FHD) institutional reform measures. Through an unprecedented, cooperative effort with the World Bank, staff from FHWA!S Offices of Policy, International Programs, and Program Development traveled to Russia with various World Bank missions to assist in preparing the scope of a project loan for road rehabilitation and maintenance in Russia. FHWA contributed to the Project Appraisal Report and also prepared a separate report that assessed the structure and process of deCISion making at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels of the Russian road transportation sector.

FHWA is co-financing the technical assistance component of the $340-million project and has committed $5 million worth of staff resources over a four-year period to its Russian counterpart, FHD. Several FHWA experts, including a highway engineer and a financial manager, will be working in Moscow to advise the FHD Project Implementation Unit (PIU).

Although several foreign governments offered to advise the PIU, FHD preferred FHWA largely because of the American experience in sustaining a decentralized--federal, state, municipal--transportation system with stable funding sources.

Technical Assistance and Institutional Reform Through "Twinning"

FHWA plans to establish "twinning" relationships at the federal, state, and local levels of government and to encourage U.S. highway-related industry and professional associations to develop twinning arrangements with Russian counterparts. Twinning focuses on organizational and manpower development efforts. The twinning plans include the following proposed pairs:

* FHWA with FHD.

* U.S. state highway agencies with

the highway agencies of Russian

autonomous republics and

oblasts (a Russian territorial

division, roughly comparable to

a state in the United States).

* U.S. industry organizations--such

as the American Road and

Transportation Builders Association

(ARTBA), American Consulting

Engineers Council

(ACEC), Construction Industry

Manufacturers Association

(CIMA), National Asphalt

Pavement Association (NAPA),

and others--with yet-to-be-established

Russian counterparts.

* U.S. professional associations--such

as the American Association

of State Highway and

Transportation Officials

(AASHTO), the Transportation

Research Board (TRB), and the

American Society of Civil

Engineers (ASCE)--with Russian

counterparts, which are in

various stages of formation. A

Russian version of AASHTO

was established in June 1993 by

24 oblasts and other regions.

The director of the Moscow

Regional Highway Department

became the principal founder