MODELLING AND DEVELOPING ROAD MAINTENANCE POLICIES AND STRATEGIES

This paper describes how the distribution and most effective use of road maintenance funding have always been some of the most critical tasks of road agencies and managers. Ideally, the use of funds is based on a set of objectives, which together formulate the road asset maintenance policy of an agency. These policies are translated into practice by implementing various maintenance strategies. These strategies reflect the availability of technologies, materials and engineering judgment and are impacted by the available budget and the method of maintenance procurement. The successful translation of policies into practice requires realistic objectives and their rational expression in engineering terms, such as level of roughness, rutting etc which in turn can be used to develop strategies and used to monitor their implementation. The paper addresses the issue of defining policies in specific engineering terms and demonstrates the impact of alternative approaches to the development of these policies. Life cycle costing and cost-benefit techniques are used extensively in the process, which is discussed in detail and demonstrated with the help of a practical example. Maintenance strategies are the practical implementations of the policies. There are a number of ways to achieve the set targets and the choice of strategies is a function of several factors beside availability of technologies and materials. Local practices and engineering judgment are often in conflict with long-term network level goals. The paper demonstrates the modeling of various strategies and their purposeful use to achieve short and long-term targets. By modeling engineering judgment and rational network level economics, strategic decisions can be justified and supported. The paper demonstrates the development of policies and strategies by using data from Transport SA. Pavement performance data has been collected for almost a decade and the analysis of this data contributed significantly to the understanding of the network and to the development of the methods discussed and demonstrated in the paper.

Language

  • English

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00964430
  • Record Type: Publication
  • ISBN: 087659229X
  • Files: TRIS, ATRI
  • Created Date: Oct 22 2003 12:00AM