Vanuatu Resilient Roads Manual: a Design Guide for Low Volume Rural Roads in Vanuatu Based on Accessibility, Security and Sustainability

This manual was developed to provide guidelines for appropriate methods of road engineering for low volume rural roads in Vanuatu. It includes climate screening tools that ensure climate risk is taken into account in road project identification, formulation and execution.

The purpose of these Guidelines is to develop and promote appropriate methods of road engineering that gives the best possible access to communities at minimum cost. This Draft Guide to Standard Design has been prepared for use across PWD for the rural road network in Vanuatu. Standard specifications are a complementary document addressing how the work should be undertaken. It has been prepared as a separate document. The first draft should be reviewed following a peer review and provincial consultations and in no more than 12 months, so that any updates and revisions based on its practical application in Vanuatu can be taken into account and design guidelines revised accordingly.

The standards referred to in this guideline do not include Urban Roads. Port Vila Urban Development Project consultants (Roughtons) are currently undertaking a significant study in Port Vila, which includes design, reconstruction and major road works, and their input should be used when revising this guideline for any future application to urban roads. At the time, consideration should be given to including urban roads in the next revision of this guideline, or it may be more appropriate to develop a stand-alone document. The Austroads Road Design Series is the basis for the Vanuatu Standards.

The manual was developed under the Climate Resilient Road Standards (CRRS) Project. The CRRS was funded directly by a grant from the Australian Government (under the Pacific-Australia Climate Change Science and Adaptation Planning (PACCSAP) programme) to the Government of Vanuatu. It commenced in December 2013 and was completed in March 2015.

A short version of the manual is also available: see Vanuatu Resilient Roads Manual: a Succinct Practical Guide.