Management of Transport Infrastructures

There is a growing awareness of the road maintenance problem in the actual world. Many countries are incurring extremely high costs because of inadequate maintenance of their road network. Lack of effective maintenance is leading to the need for premature rehabilitation of their roads and is causing high costs for vehicle operation, for industry and for agriculture. In most countries, the maintenance budget is inadequate and consequently, road administrations have to spend their budgets effectively and in such a way as to achieve the best value for the money. However, constraints of available resources make it necessary to set priorities for budget allocation, and these are needed at all levels in the hierarchy, from national to local level. That is why the accurate assessment of the road condition, in order to establish the maintenance needs and to set such priorities, is very important.