PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS USING RONET: CASE OF THE FREE STATE PROVINCE

Abstract

Currently, more than 40% of roads in the Free State are in very poor condition as a result of underfunding, lack of technical capacity, lack of maintenance, increased vehicle tyre pressure, increased traffic volumes, and more. Moreover, it was discovered that local municipalities do not have a tool to strategize their maintenance expenditure. This research study was undertaken in an attempt to address this challenge, and with the intention that RONET be introduced to the Free State road network at some stage. This would be done in an effort to improve the conditions of this road network by addressing maintenance and rehabilitation backlogs. The study was limited to roads in the Free State province as the data was available to the researcher. This research study presents the application of the World Bank’s model, the Road Network Evaluation Tools (RONET), to perform a strategic network level analysis of the road network of the Free State province. As already mentioned, the condition of this network deteriorated considerably during the early 2000s due to under-financing of operations and maintenance, increased vehicle tyre pressure, increased traffic volumes, etc. In recent years, financing for the road sector has gradually increased, focusing on the dangerous and highly trafficked sections of the road network. However, the overall budget for the road sector remains inadequate to maintain the entire road network in a stable condition (Free State Department of Roads, 2002). The primary goals of RONET are to design and obtain an optimum maintenance and rehabilitation strategy and related budget, estimate the impact of different funding levels on the future quality and estimate the economic consequences of budget constraints. The application of the RONET model will lead to an optimal maintenance and rehabilitation strategy with a good balance between rehabilitation, periodic and recurrent maintenance. The implementation of an optimal maintenance and rehabilitation strategy would cause major improvement compared to the current condition of the network. Implementation of higher than optimal maintenance and rehabilitation strategies would lead to higher costs and subsequently lower net benefits, while implementation of lower than optimal maintenance and rehabilitation standards would lead to considerably worse network conditions for slightly lower agency costs. In other words, even minor budget constraints would result in considerably higher total road transport costs, impacting on the province’s economy. The undertaking of appropriate road maintenance of even a small road network is difficult without some form of road maintenance management plan, hence the study to investigate RONET in an attempt to enable road authorities to formulate a feasible business plan to curb the maintenance and rehabilitation backlog. Decision makers can use the Road Network Evaluation Tools model to appreciate the current state of the network, determine its relevant importance to the economy and compute a set of monitoring indicators to assess the performance of the road network. RONET assesses the performance of the road network, over time, under different road maintenance standards. It determines, for instance, the minimum cost of sustaining the network in its current condition and estimates the savings or the costs to the economy for maintaining the network at different levels of service. RONET further determines the allocation of expenditure among routine maintenance, periodic maintenance and rehabilitation road works. Moreover, it determines the optimal maintenance standard for each road class (highest Net Present Value) and compares it with the current (budget constraints) and other maintenance standards. Lastly, it determines the “funding gap”, which is defined as the difference between current maintenance spending and required maintenance spending (to maintain the network at a given level of service), and the effect of under-spending on increased transport costs. The new Road User Revenues module estimates the level of road user charges required (e.g. fuel levy.) The application of RONET will lead to an optimal Maintenance and Rehabilitation (M & R) strategy with a good balance between rehabilitation, periodic and routine maintenance. Implementation of the “Optimal” maintenance and rehabilitation strategy will result in an improvement to the current condition of the network. Implementing RONET will alleviate the backlog and bad conditions of the Free State road network, which was caused by the lack and/or shortage of experienced technical staff in government. RONET will also be used to assess the current characteristics of the road network and its future performance depending on different levels of network funding. The future performance of the road network under different funding levels will also be simulated.