Post-Disaster Road Reconstruction in Aceh - Local Governments’ Role in Road Maintenance

Many studies have shown the importance of improved road infrastructure towards economic
development of a region through economic agglomeration and widened business network coverage
resulting from better access and higher mobility. However, such benefit can only be achieved if road
infrastructure remains accessible and reliable in the long term period. Accordingly, in addition to
resources required for the construction, road management will also need to allocate adequate resources for
the maintenance.
In the event of major natural disasters, road infrastructure is among the sectors that often suffer from
the greatest damages and losses. It is also suggested that reconstruction of road infrastructure is critical
for a speedy recovery process. In the case of tsunami reconstruction in Aceh, Indonesia, poor road
infrastructure is also argued to have caused delays and higher reconstruction cost.
In most developing countries such as Indonesia, another important issue requiring particular attention is
the ability and capability of local government in maintaining road infrastructures. In the post-tsunami
reconstruction in Aceh, disregard to road classification and ownership status (national, Prov. or district),
most of road reconstruction projects were either funded or co-funded by national government and donor
agencies; which project outcomes were then transferred to local government. This resulted in giving
additional burden to local governments with low technical and financial capacity for maintaining and
ensuring the long term benefit of the investment, particularly where there are more road networks
reconstructed than destroyed.
Accordingly, this paper, which is based on an ongoing PhD study, discusses issues identified in the
post-disaster road reconstruction in Aceh with regards to local governments’ capacity in road
maintenance. The discussion includes regulations, policies and other aspects that contributed to the road
management and maintenance within the context of Aceh post-tsunami reconstruction.