Pavement Management Strategic Plan
Our Pavement Management Strategic Plan helps us make the best maintenance and renewal decisions and prioritise available funding.
Background
We manage approximately 26,000 carriageway kilometres of arterial roads network across Victoria, worth over $30 billion (figure current as of 30 June 2020).
Ongoing and regular maintenance work is required to preserve the safety and condition of road pavement.
Road pavements consist of two layers; the surface layer has a lifespan of 10-15 years, and the structural layer has over 40 years. Please refer to Figure 1.
Figure 1
We undertake three types of pavement preservation works:
- Routine maintenance - inspecting and fixing isolated defects and hazards.
- Resurfacing - replacing the surface layers to protect the pavement from water damage and correcting surface defects.
- Rehabilitation - rebuilding a failed pavement to restore the structural and surface layers to an “as new” condition.
The physical characteristics to define poor road condition are:
- roughness
- rutting
- cracking
- extent of patching
- texture loss
- loss of aggregate (the small stones which make up the road’s surface).
The images below are examples of poor road conditions.
Figure 2 - Road segment with high roughness, rutting and maintenance patching. Rehabilitation Required
Figure 3 - Road segment with texture loss which reduces safety. Resurfacing Required.
Figure 4 - Road segment with high roughness, rutting and maintenance patching. Rehabilitation Required
Figure 5 - Road segment with extensive cracking, loss of texture and rutting. Resurfacing Required.
Why do we have a pavement management strategic plan?
The way we use the road network has changed significantly since most of it was built in the late 1940s and 50s, when the largest vehicle expected on the network was approximately 40 tonnes.
We had far fewer vehicles on our road network.
Victoria's rapid population growth is increasing by more than 2% annually (2018-2019) and we’re adding an additional 2,000 new cars to the road network every week. In addition, a shift to a service-based economy has resulted in an increase in trucks and other commercial vehicles on our roads.
The Pavement Management Strategic Plan sees us invest in the most important roads at the right time, and ensure we’re looking ahead to what the community will need in the foreseeable future.
How the Pavement Management Strategic Plan is used?
Our Pavement Management Strategic Plan has expanded the focus from planning and measuring our work to focusing more on community outcomes. Specifically this means investment in roads that contribute to the Victorian economy; safety, wellbeing and journey experience.
The strategic plan outlines our investment decision making criteria that are summarised in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Investment Decision Criteria for Maintenance and Renewal Works
Critical Works
Reactive works to restore road conditions that have resulted in speed reductions, a significant negative impact on productivity or road safety.
Needed Works
Proactive works to prevent road conditions being compromised in the short term (next 12-24 months).
Desired Works
Proactive works to limit premature road damage and to achieve whole of life minimum cost outcomes.
How does the strategic plan work?
Maintenance and renewal investment will be prioritised based on the road classification and the required type of work. The table below outlines our funding priorities
Figure 7 - Asset Renewal Funding Priorities