Development of optimal road maintenance fund allocation framework

Abstract

Ideally, road maintenance funds should be allocated as and when maintenance requirements fall due. However this cannot often be achieved due to limited availability of road maintenance funds. In many developing countries, road maintenance needs are huge and available resources are not sufficient to allow all desired maintenance activities and interventions to be carried out.This paper describes the development of an equitable, transparent, fair and justifiable approach to allocation of road maintenance resources. The key research element is the investigation of the key relationships between road user charges and road agency costs based on the principles of efficiency and equity. It introduces a novel approach to reduce biases in road maintenance fund allocation in a country. To test the validity and demonstrate the application of the framework developed, a worked example has been presented to allocate an assumed available budget. The framework developed provides an objective way of investing in road network preservation by balancing between efficiency and equity and thereby improve decision making in road asset management