Projects: Armenia Road Rehabilitation

Looking back on the World Bank transportation infrastructure improvements for 2009, the most recently approved project is actually additional funding for the Armenia: Lifeline Roads Improvement Project which is funded out of the IRBD. $36.6 million USD with a standard 25 year loan (with a 10 year grace period) to rehab 140 km of roads in rural Armenia. Here's the reason for the additional funds (available in the project description):

This project paper concerns to provide an additional loan to the Republic of Armenia for the Lifeline Roads Improvement Project (LRIP). The additional loan will finance the scaling up of the project's activities through rehabilitating an additional 140 kilometers of the lifeline road network. This additional loan will also help mitigate the impact of the financial crisis by creating temporary jobs in road construction. This additional financing (AF) will also finance the design of project roads, supervision of works, capacity development in pavement design and road safety, project operating costs, and financial and technical audits. The project development objective (PDO) will remain the same as in the original project. The results framework and the monitoring indicators have been revised to reflect the increased scope of the project. The implementation arrangements remain the same as in the original project. There will be no co-financing from other donors. The closing date is being extended by one year, from December 31, 2010 to December 31, 2011.

The additional funds were approved of August of this year, but no new project proposals for transportation have happened in the second half of the year. Looks like the World Bank is setting the stage with government reform programs/money in Georgia and Armenia and adding additional funding to infrastructure projects in Azerbaijan. Hopefully a more exciting project will come out of the World Bank next year, otherwise it looks like private developers are having all the fun.