The_Open_Door_deel1

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The 2,500 miles of feeder roads are nearly double the 1975
figure. In the same year (1978) the total mileage of privately
owned and maintained roads in the country was reported to be
1,474 of which 93 miles were paved. These roads mainly served the
needs of their owners, the foreign concessionaires. Virtually all
privately owned roads were situated on the rubber plantations of
these concessionaires. About half of them were on Firestone's
plantations (712 miles of which 41 miles paved), some twenty per
cent were reported to be on LAC's plantation in Grand Bassa County
(280 miles), nearly ten per cent on B.F. Goodrich's plantation
(125 miles), whereas smaller plantations such as those of The
Liberia Company, the Salala Rubber Corporation, and the (Liberianowned)
Africa Fruit Company had constructed 70 miles, 50 miles
and 65 miles, respectively, on their plantations (22). In 1978
the total road network of Liberia was over 6,000 miles (see Table
63-A). However, it should be mentioned that the geographical
distribution of these roads was very uneven, reflecting political
priorities as well as the importance of the various regions
(counties) to Liberia's monetary economy.
Like all other publicly financed facilities, road facilities are
concentrated in Montserrado County. This county occupies only
6.9 per cent of the country's total area but one out of every
five miles of public road constructed in Liberia lies in this
county. For secondary roads even one out of every four miles
constructed lies in Montserrado County. Sinoe County, on the
other hand, finds itself at the bottom of the list with less than
four out of every hundred miles constructed. Table 63-B also
shows that the distribution of primary roads between coastal and
inland counties is more or less even, but that the coastal
counties have a much more elaborated network of secondary roads
than the inland counties. The inland counties, on the other hand,
have more feeder roads but these are not all weather roads and
can only be used during the dry season. The high proportion of
feeder roads in Lofa county is the result of a U.S.A.I.D.financed
rural road construction programme as well as the Lofa
County Integrated Rural Development Project.
Similar foreign-financed projects in Nimba and Grand Gedeh
Counties have resulted in a relatively large number of feeder
roads in these two counties. In Grand Gedeh County the foreignowned
logging companies nave also constructed a fairly substantial
number of miles of feeder roads. The importance of these
roads for the Liberian economy can hardly be overestimated. As
late as the mid-1970's e.g. the town of Butuo in Nimba County,
and situated on the border of Liberia and Ivory Coast, had no
road and in fact was so isolated from the rest of Liberia that
its only contact was with Ivory Coast; hence the people of Butuo
used Ivory Coast's currency for their transactions, the Franc CFA.
In 1978 feeder roads accounted for more than half of Liberia's
road network (53.4$). One fifth of the road network consisted of
secondary roads (20.8$) and one fourth of primary roads (25,8$).
However, only 5.7$ of all public roads in Liberia in that year
were paved roads, the remaining 94.3$ were laterite and/or earth
roads. Generally speaking, one out of every four miles of road