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MANILA, PHILIPPINES (4 August 2005) - During the 1990s, when the coastal provinces of the People's Republic of China (PRC) were leading the country's dramatic growth, the province of Hebei, on the PRC's northeast coast, was being left behind.

Despite growth rates of about 20% per annum during the decade, Hebei was then the second poorest of the PRC's eight coastal provinces. Its growth, rapid as it was, was ironically creating the very limits to its development.

"Economic growth results in an increased demand for transport services," says Kim Jraiw, an ADB Senior Transport Specialist.

"The continuing economic growth of Hebei was resulting in higher vehicle ownership and generating increased demands for road transport."

Although the PRC's road network has grown by more than 70% since 1985, most of the roads in the network have inadequate capacity and are too weak structurally to carry current and projected traffic levels. Aside from this, slow moving traffic due to tractors and nonmotorized vehicles contribute to chronic congestion and traffic accidents. Controlled access expressways on highly trafficked routes were seen as the answer to these problems.

In 1998, ADB agreed to help finance a 141-kilometer four-lane, controlled access expressway that will form a strategic link in the National Trunk Highway System that was essential for the development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Shanghai economic growth corridor.

It was also agreed to tackle the accessibility of nine designated poverty counties in Southern Hebei, through which the expressway would run. Southern Hebei is a predominantly agricultural area where the majority of villages do not have all-weather access to the road network. The majority of the rural population had no access to clean drinking water and services, and illiteracy and underemployment rates were high.

The US$479 million expressway, with six large bridges, six interchanges, four roadside stations, 225 crossings and culverts, and eight toll stations, has been in operation since December 2000 - nine months ahead of schedule. The project also upgraded 232 km of county connecter roads, constructed 121 km of village access roads feeding into the county connector roads, and built 12 km of interchange links to connect the expressway with the road networks adjoining the expressway.

"This is the first ADB financed road project in the PRC to use the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques - where people living within the zone of influence of the project selected the location of the local roads component," adds Mr. Jraiw, who is the officer in charge of the project.

"Upgrading and construction of the lowest chain of the network at the county and village levels has helped promote area-wide road network operations, linking the expressway interchanges with the surrounding networks to boost access for isolated rural areas and extend the socioeconomic benefits of the project."

According to the Hebei Academy of Social Science (HASS), which has been conducting a monitoring study to assess the project's impact on poverty since 1999, the project roads have benefited more than 6.8 million people in more than 14 counties. In the process, they have directly linked nine poor counties, three urban districts, 170 towns, and 5,741 villages.

Also, since the project began operating, the per capita gross domestic product of all counties in the project influence area has grown steadily. The village access roads, which are connected to the county connector roads of the project, have provided more than 156,000 rural people from 168 villages direct access to the main activity centers and the overall road network.

During 1999-2003, the per capita income of the sample villages included in the HASS study increased on average more than 10%. The area of cash crops grew by 72% over the same period. For the province as a whole, the total rural population fell from 81% in 1999 to 69% in 2004. The rural population of the project area declined from 93% in 1999 to 86.5% in 2004.

While provincial per capita rural income increased from CNY2,405 in 1998 to CNY2,603 in 2004, per capita farmer income of the project area expanded more dramatically - from CNY212 in 1998 to CNY958 in 2004.

The construction phase of the project employed 21,000 people for more than 34 months, generating about 1.2 million person-months of employment. About 80% of these workers were recruited locally. Farmers living near the expressway accounted for 80% of the unskilled labor jobs. This work generated about CNY3,000 in income per household, or 30% of a normal household's annual income at that time.

Today, some 1,400 permanent staff are employed in traffic management, maintenance, toll collection, and office management of the expressway. In addition, more than 500 temporary staff work at the gas stations, hotels, restaurants, and shops in the four roadside stations. Women have benefited substantially from the project, accounting for about 60% of the staff employed in these toll and roadside stations.

HASS studies have also showed significant infrastructure development in the project area since the project began operation. Among the developments seen are new truck and taxi businesses, building of new village markets and houses, tree planting, more portable clean water systems, better electricity services, and increases in the number of health workers, teachers, and the non-farming population. It has also led generally to greater urbanization along the project roads.

"The design of the Project emphasized coordinated planning of a hierarchy of roads and beneficiary participation in order to maximize the poverty reduction impacts and social benefits of expressway development," says Nigel Rayner, Director of the Transport and Communications Division in ADB's East and Central Asia Department.

"Many studies show a strong link between the improvement of quality of life and road development. The Hebei project, which has been assessed as highly successful, is concrete evidence of that."

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