Nhem Saran, director of the city’s Department of Public Works and Transport, estimates it will take a decade for Phnom Penh’s streets to be paved under current conditions.
With more money, he says, it could be done in five years.
Although road repairs may seem random to the traveling public, he says the city is following a five-year plan that includes repaving, improvements to the water supply and repairs to the dike systems encircling the city.
Some projects, like repairs to the outer dike, are being designed by Japanese engineers. The Department of Public Works is organizing repairs to the inner dike, main thoroughfares and cross streets.
In the next three years, Nhem Saran said, the city plans to spend about $9 million on road and dike repairs.
The biggest project, slated for 2002, involves repairs to the inner dike that loops from the Cambodian-Japanese Friendship Bridge to the Monivong Bridge.
Because roads run along the dike-tops, that means a lot of new pavement. The inner-dike loop includes streets 70, 273, 355, and 598 in the north and west; and Street 271, which runs from Pochentong Boulevard southwest to the Monivong Bridge.
City officials had expected the job to take up most of the $6 million raised by the sale of the International Youth Club to the US government for a new embassy. But the dike work bid came in at $4.5 million, leaving $1.5 million for additional roadwork, said Nhem Saran.
The extra money will pay for resurfacing Monivong Boulevard after new water pipes are installed.
The additional funds will also cover much of the cost of paving Street 51 (Pasteur) from Wat Phnom to the Independence Monument.
The city has also found enough money to resurface Street 19 by the end of this year, Nhem Saran said.
The city’s plans have been augmented by donor projects. The Japanese government, as part of its efforts to improve Phnom Penh traffic, has already paid for resurfacing streets 107, 182, 105, 63 and parts of 51.
This year, the city will spend $770,000 to pave two main streets with asphalt and concrete: Street 182, a 3-km east-west thoroughfare that runs seven blocks south of Kampuchea Krom from Monivong Boulevard to the 271 ring road; and Yugoslavie Tito Boulevard (Street 214).
Five more are slated to get macadam paving: streets 139, 111, 115, 141, and 13, bringing the total expenditure to nearly $1 million.
Next year, a cluster of downtown cross streets will get the asphalt-concrete treatment: Street 184, from Norodom to Sisowath Quay; Street 130, from Norodom to Sisowath; and Street 154, from Monivong to Sisowath, as well as a stretch of Nehru Boulevard.
Another group of streets running north and south between Russian and Kampuchea Krom boulevards will get macadam paving: 265, 261, 259, 257, 233, 225 and 221.
The other streets on the 2002 macadam list are 199 and 193, which run southwest from Sihanouk to Mao Tse-Tung boulevards; 173, which runs from Sihanouk south to the 271 ring road; and 528, a circle road in Tuol Kok that loops from 598 to 289.
The total to be spent in 2002—in addition to the dike project—is about $935,000.
The city plans to spend $1.2 million in 2003, using asphalt-concrete on Street 205 between Sihanouk and Mao Tse-Tung and Street 310 between Norodom and Monireth.
Macadam surfacing is slated for 21 side streets, including: 105 between 278 and 432; 113 and 125 between 182 and 214; 250 between Monivong and 105; 143 from Sihanouk to 198; streets 198, 232, and 242 between 161 and Monivong; 155 from Mao Tse- Tung to 440; 266 from Monireth to 199; 19 from Wat Phnom to Suramarit; 592 from 331 to 598; Monivong Boulevard from the roundabout at the Old Stadium to Street 68; 230 from 215 to Mao Tse-Tung; 566 from 289 to 598; 118 from 107 to 139; 161 from 164 to 217; 166 from 161 to 141; 168 and 170 from 111 to 107; and 61 from 106 to 84.
