THE COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF ROAD MAINTENANCE

Maintenance of a nation's roads has three main purposes. Firstly, by reducing the rate of deterioration it will postpone the need for very costly reconstruction. Secondly, vehicle operating costs are reduced by keeping the running surface in good condition and by reducing its unevenness in particular. Thirdly, by helping to keep roads open it can avoid the high costs of transport delays and unreliability which would result from road failures. The total savings which result from effective maintenance can be many times greater than the cost of carrying out the maintenance. However, in many countries insufficient resources are allocated to road maintenance and that maintenance which is carried out is usually executed very inefficiently. The result is that the majority of roads receive little or no maintenance. The paper draws attention to ways in which more effective maintenance may be achieved. Recommendations are made about priorities for budget allocation at the national level and about the need for better and more appropriate management of maintenance and maintenance equipment. The scope for greater efficiency of maintenance by using contractors and by labour-based methods is also discussed. (Author/TRRL)