VEHICLE OPERATING COSTS AND ROAD ROUGHNESS ISSUES: A SOUTHLAND PERSPECTIVE. NEW ZEALAND ROADING SYMPOSIUM 1987. VOLUME 4

A great deal of overseas research has been conducted on the inter-relationship between the construction, maintenance and utilisation costs of a roading system. The results have been used to produce models for vehicle operating costs relative to road characteristics, including roughness and road deterioration rates. There is an acknowledged difficulty in transferring the results of such research between countries with widely differring conditions. The National Roads Board has recently issued an economic appraisal manual specifying the various cost factors to be used for the evaluation of roading projects. Some of the figures included in the manual are calculated using the models but the input data have not been subject to any confirming research under New Zealand conditions. Some work has been done in New Zealand on road roughness but there is a lack of definitive figures on local vehicle operating costs under varying road characteristics. The Southland County participated in trials on the use of the NAASRA roughometer and has undertaken an analysis of seven years of plant operating account records for 13 heavy trucks. This work showed that: (a) the heavy vehicle operating costs adopted for use by the NRB are, in some cases, more than twice the actual operating costs recorded for the council's fleet, and (b) roughness is one measurement which may be useful in comparing roads but other factors must be used to assess the overall structural condition of the pavement. If economic evaluation methods are to have credence, it is essential that New Zealand research on actual vehicle operating costs over a wide range of road characteristics is given priority and suitable methods for predicting pavement performance are developed for surface sealed roads. For the covering abstract of the symposium see IRRD 810782. (Author/TRRL)

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0477071562
• Corporate Authors:

  National Roads Board, New Zealand

  P.O. Box 12-041
  Wellington,   New Zealand 
• Authors:
  • Brown, T J
  • Troon, J J
• Publication Date: 1987

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 719-735
• Serial:
  • Publication of: UNITED NATIONS
  • Publisher: United Nations
  • ISSN: 0252-4392

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Conferences; Deterioration; Evaluation; Heavy vehicles; Motor vehicles; Operating costs; Pavements; Roughness
• Uncontrolled Terms: Pavement conditions
• Geographic Terms: New Zealand
• ITRD Terms: 6155: Apparatus (measuring); 8525: Conference; 5255: Deterioration; 5910: Durability; 3071: Evenness; 132: Forecast; 2755: Highway; 1236: Lorry; 8079: New Zealand; 221: Operating costs; 2972: Surfacing
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Pavements; Society; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00476429
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• ISBN: 0-477-07156-2
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 30 1988 12:00AM