Infrastructure Contract: Components & Work Plan

Four components define the work of the Infrastructure Contract:

• Identify regional transport strategy
• Develop transport network to support the strategy
• Feasibility studies of transport network improvements
• Training and technology transfer 

Operational concept

This component includes conceptual work, analysis of existing studies, historical analysis of transport flows and the development of a transport model to forecast flows leading to a draft Mediterranean Transport Infrastructure Network.

Program for development

The development program includes identifying key issues such as economic and environmental impact, financing and funding, relation to other plans and institutional issues.

Capacity building: project preparation and implementation, infrastructure management

The project aims to strengthen the capacity of MEDA partner governments to plan, construct and manage transport infrastructure and services through a range of integrated measures. These measures include formal training through short courses and seminars (four in total) and informal training by involving MEDA partner government counterpart staff in actual feasibility and other transport review studies. The capacity building will also be effected by holding three project workshops, at which key issues and the study conclusions reached will be presented and discussed with local MEDA partner stakeholders.

Preparation of feasibility studies

Preparation of feasibility studies

The project will undertake detailed feasibility studies of the most urgently needed improvements to transport infrastructure in the MEDA region that fall within the overall project objectives. Initially, the Mediterranean Transport Infrastructure Network (MTIN) that serves these project objectives will be identified, following which this network will be tested to verify its capacity to handle projected future year traffic loadings (to 2030) with efficiency. Where necessary, new or improved transport infrastructure will be developed to meet the envisaged future traffic needs in an effective manner.

Some elements of the MTIN may already have been identified and have had earlier studies carried out into their design requirements and feasibility. Such projects may be suitable to be “Quick Win” projects, where they would be rapidly progressed under the current study in order to allow their actual implementation at the earliest possible date. Other projects will be components of national development plans and objectives and some projects will only be identified after examining the future year traffic needs and checking the ability of the existing transport infrastructure to satisfy this need in an efficient manner. Having identified all potential infrastructure projects, these will need to be screened and ranked into their apparent order of urgency and effectiveness.

The infrastructure feasibility studies are intended to be undertaken as a joint exercise between the study Consortium experts and counterpart staff from each of the participating MEDA partners that are participating in the project. The greater the level of counterpart staff input, the greater will be the number of feasibility studies that can be completed within the project period.