Approved in 2010, the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) first large-scale rural roads project in Cambodia took ambitious steps to build flood and drought resilience in the transport sector. This initiative was part of a pilot within ADB's Sustainable Transport Initiative. The project upgraded Cambodia's rural road network by paving more than 500 km of rural roads in seven provinces. The resilience solutions included elements focused on design, materials, eco-based approaches, capacity building, and emergency preparedness. In 2015, a second phase was approved followed by additional financing, expanding the scope by a further 1,200 km in 10 provinces. In 2018, a third phase was approved with further funding and coverage of 360 km in five provinces. The project will continue until 2026.

Road transport is the principal mode of transport in Cambodia. As of 2010, the road network of about 39,400 km included about 4,800 km of national roads (primary national highways), 6,600 km of provincial roads (secondary national highways) and 28,000 km of rural roads. By the early 1990s, after several years of civil war, the country's road network had deteriorated greatly. As of 2010, development efforts brought the paved national and provincial road network to about 2,700 km in length, or about 23.7 percent of the total national and provincial road network. Meanwhile, the rural road network needed further improvement as it had deteriorated due to the steady growth in traffic, lack of maintenance, insufficient financing, poor implementation of road maintenance standards, inadequate contractor capacity, and design and construction deficiencies. Click to Read