Louis Berger awarded contract for road maintenance in Gabon

© Jorge Chaves – za.fotolia.com

As part of the contract, Louis Berger will train approximately 20 Gabon-based small- and medium-sized businesses by providing the knowledge and capabilities needed to maintain and monitor the country's roads.

The contract, part of Gabon's Sector Governance Support Programme, is the second that Louis Berger has won in the last eight years. Between 2007 and 2012, the company also was involved in the programme's previous phase, providing institutional capacity building for public and private sector organisations working to improve the maintenance of Gabon's road network.

Long-term sustainability

"It is critical that long-term sustainability and viability considerations be taken into account for these types of projects," said Jean-Pierre Dupacq, head of Louis Berger's operations in Africa. "Through training, knowledge sharing and coaching with the Gabonese public and private sectors, Louis Berger is promoting lower total cost of ownership and equipping local actors to be vendors of choice for future road construction and maintenance in the country."

The Sector Governance Support Programme is a near €1bn ($1.15bn) partnership between the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to improve the management of strategic sectors in Gabon, such as public finance, mining, biodiversity and road maintenance. Gabon's General Directorate of Road and Airfield Maintenance is leading the programme's implementation.

The international joint venture is tasked with helping the General Directorate improve overall policy formulation and implementation as well as project and finance management. In addition, the consortium will prepare a series of technical audits to enhance the governance and performance of the second generation road fund.