Road management and maintenance

This chapter looks at the various approaches and techniques of road maintenance, its impact on costs of material haulage and methods that can be applied to optimise haul road maintenance and minimise total road user costs. Design and construction costs for the majority of haul roads represent only a small proportion of the total operating and road maintenance costs. The use of an appropriate road maintenance management strategy has the potential to generate significant cost savings – particularly in the light of increases in rolling resistance due to the interactive effects of traffic volume and wearing course deterioration. An optimal road design will include a certain frequency of maintenance within the limits of required road performance and minimum vehicle operating and road maintenance costs. The major difficulty encountered when analysing maintenance requirements for haul roads is the subjective and localised nature of the problem: levels of functionality or serviceability being user-, site- and material-specific.