SEACAP 3 will contribute to the aims of SEACAP through the development and mainstreaming of local resource-based standards for rural roads. This will allow current rural road design and maintenance standards and guidelines to be improved for the specific circumstances of Lao PDR and permit more efficient and optimal use of the limited financial and physical resources available for the sector. This will also encourage a more sustainable approach to the provision and maintenance of rural access through selection and application of the most appropriate technology depending on the local circumstances, resources and environment, and Whole Life Costing.

GoL plans to eradicate mass poverty by 2010 and general poverty by 2020. Access to goods, services, markets and opportunities is essential to this plan and it follows that all-year round access to every village will be needed by 2020, with a substantial improvement by 2010. The successful implementation of the policy is a major technical as well as financial challenge and needs to be supported by an engineering framework to enable improvements in access through the construction and maintenance of rural transport infrastructure (RTI).It is in this area that SEACAP 03 can make an important contribution.

The proposed rural infrastructure improvements will require around 10,000km of either upgraded or new construction. If funds are to be cost-efficiently spent on a sustainable network then it is essential that rural roads are designed and built to appropriate standards and with achievable technical specifications that recognise the task the roads have to perform; the particular Lao road environments within which they have to operate; and the resources available.

SEACAP 03 involves the drafting of Low Volume Rural Road (LVRR) task-based Standards and Specifications and an associated research strategy and training modules .

The output will be an appropriate framework of rural road standards and specifications suitable for a range of Low Volume Rural Road situations that will bring a needed harmonisation and focus to the engineering aspects of the GoL policy on rural infrastructure development. Key documents that will be available early in 2008 in both the English and Lao languages:

Document 1 , Low Volume Rural Roads: Classification and Geometric Standards

Document 2 : Low Volume Rural Roads Technical specifications for an initial short list of pavement options and an associated matrix of standard designs

Document 3 : Low Volume Rural Roads Guidelines containing advice on the application of Documents 1 and 2 within an appropriate Lao PDR Environmentally Optimised Design strategy