Strategy - minimising whole of life cost of road assets

Introduction

The purpose of this strategy is to identify Austroads research outputs that will deliver the objective of minimising whole of life costs for managing and maintaining road assets in todays challenging environment of:

• increased road user expectations
• demands on funding to maintain existing and newly constructed assets
• ongoing asset renewal requirements
• increasing levels of service through, tighter legislative requirements, increased standards, improved safety.

There is a need to ensure the road network is managed to meet both current and future demands and to ensure that the expenditure is optimal.

The strategy identifies key areas of focus and provides topics for consideration.

Definitions:

Road assets = all those existing and proposed assets within the legal road reserve corridor.
Whole of life cost = the total cost to maintain any asset during the period of it's expected life (excludes the initial cost of installation).

Objective

To deliver a program of research that focuses on outputs that will assist road agencies determine appropriate techniques to minimise whole of life cost for road asset management and maintenance.

Overview

While there are numerous methodologies and practices for maintaining road assets, this research strategy aims to uncover techniques for determining optimal expenditure to manage road assets to an acceptable level of service.

That is -

"...the right dollars, the right solution, the right quality, in the right place, at the right time..."

The strategy outlines a four year program of research activity. The research results will typically:

• clearly identify costs for maintaining existing standards
• determine whether costs are minimal or optimal
• define or capture asset details/conditions in a way which will identify how best to manage and maintain, together with anticipated end of life
• when and how to intervene and what level of renewal is required.

These issues will be considered alongside the external pressures on asset management, such as:

• asset management practices that are more responsive to road users needs
• new legislative requirements
• acceptable levels of risk
• new innovative technologies.

Consideration and prioritisation of the above issues is a challenge, especially given the limited level of funding available for maintaining assets, hence this research strategy aims to provide research outputs to assist asset managers ensure the best value for money is achieved.

This strategy has been divided into two streams to fully reflect the broad scope of road infrastructure asset management. The first stream focuses on existing road assets and is the first priority for research over the next four years. The second stream includes the creation of new road assets, and while just as important, will not be researched in the interim.

Four themes have emerged under these two work streams. The first three themes will be the main focus for asset related research.

Key themes

1. Optimal levels of service

• understanding the rate of asset deterioration and when to intervene
• addressing the variation in maintenance standards and their optimisation
• development of funding models to optimise road user costs.

2. Road user requirements

• customer expectations, needs and their willingness to pay
• acceptable levels of risk, particular the impact of heavy vehicles
• communicating outputs.

3. Monitoring & performance reporting

• standardisation of asset definitions to support the decision making processes
• determining asset condition, monitoring and reporting on condition trends
• determining the impact on initiatives and their overall cost effectiveness
• measuring success of research results and reporting this back to key stakeholders.

4. Capital investment planning

• investment and issues related to the expansion of road infrastructure.

The following is a list of ideas that form the focus of research related to each theme:

Optimal levels of service

First priority

• To develop long term predictions of all asset behaviour, deterioration rates and to understand the principles for asset renewal e.g. pavements, bridges, other structures, delineation, signage & signals, lighting, corridor features (verge maintenance). To focus on increasing knowledge of physical treatment both at a network and project level.
• To optimise intervention standards for maintenance (linked to customer expectations).
• To develop a cost model(s) demonstrating least whole of life costs (simple and standardised across agencies for a defined level of service).

Second priority

• assessing risks on the road network and assigning appropriate weightings
• operation and full utilisation of the road assets*
• maintenance techniques for low-volume roads
• asset valuation and depreciation processes
• the value of aesthetics in road management & maintenance
• procurement options for maintenance services
• underperformance of existing assets (QA requirements).

Road user requirements

First priority

• to explore customer expectations, their willingness to pay and to develop a process for determining trade-offs
• to understand the impacts to the infrastructure from heavy vehicles - both vehicle weight and configuration impacts
• to explore new maintenance techniques and develop methodologies to restrict environmental and social impacts to road users
• to effectively communicate the outputs from asset management practices (linked to performance and decision reporting).

Second priority

• safety initiatives*
• emerging and current environment issues e.g. noise, emissions, run-off, vibration, etc.
• social considerations for local communities
• walking/cycling needs.

Monitoring & performance reporting

First priority

• to promote the standardisation of asset condition measurement & new methodologies
• to develop methodologies for road information collection, management, analysis and reporting
• to enhance asset performance and decision reporting.

Second priority

• benchmark monitoring
• harmonisation and calibration of measurement equipment
• trend analysis of asset condition over time
• customer surveys
• accessibility of data e.g. traffic details in real time*.

Capital investment planning

Second priority

• significant improvement to levels of service
• incorporating new unique assets, with particular focus on maintenance costs and long term financial implications
• project evaluation
• sustainability of capital investment - both technical aspects and cash flow
• fitness for purpose of the road infrastructure
• new capacity improvements - extension/expansion of the road network
• investment decisions related to community user costs (linked to road user cost models).

* Indicates an overlap or relationship to another key strategic area

Key points to be addressed

When determining each initiative and subsequent research project, these ideas will be considered to ensure the following items are addressed:

• staged implementation of research results
• training/upskilling and technical competency
• development of user friendly guidelines
• research focussed on results/outputs that can easily be incorporated into agency policies/practices/strategies
• local authority considerations (i.e. for all road types)
• demonstration of 'added value' and subsequent benefits of new initiatives e.g. net present value, where the initial cost is off-set by the longer term savings
• linkage to the other four key strategic areas
• existing research projects
• prioritisation of research projects (action plans from the work areas)
• updating of existing guidelines
• community engagement
• long term sustainability
• current funding levels for each agency
• relationship between technical and road user
• existing management and administrative models in each agency
• how to monitor and measure success of the research delivered
• whether Austroads the appropriate body to address the issues/gaps identified
• liaison and interaction with key international organisations - i.e. PIARC
• best way to convey results to decision makers.

The research proposal will consider and demonstrate how each of these items has been addressed.

Outputs

The detailed strategies under each theme are in priority order and detailed research project proposals will be developed to research the issue highlighted. In considering the above initiatives, each research work area will be developed to address specific issues and identify specific outputs from the research projects to achieve the overall objective of the drive to minimise whole of life costs of road assets.

Each research proposal is to:

• be fully scoped
• have a clearly defined output
• include a process for implementation and training
• identify areas for future investigation/research.

The prioritisation process for each proposal will consider:

• relevance
• role of Austroads
• ranking.

Reference documents

1. Austroads strategic plan
2. Strategy for Improved Asset Management Practice (no longer in print)
3. Integrated Asset Management Guidelines for Road Networks (2002) AP-R202/02