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INTRODUCTION
Road infrastructure is understood to include all physical assets within the road reserve, including not only the road itself, but all associated furniture (signage etc), and all earthworks, drainage, structures (culverts, bridges, buildings etc). The system used for the management of road infrastructure can be described by looking at the following points:
* management functions
* typical system components
* component selection
* generic steps to system implementation
MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS
The road infrastructure management process can be broken into three primary functional requirements for any network and set of assets:
* planning (budgeting, programming and selection)
* works (preparation, procurement and execution)
* performance (monitoring, storage and reporting)
These three primary functions can be represented as a management cycle, as shown in Figure 1.
The cycle usually operates annually, with longer planning cycles, although these would be on a rolling annual basis. The nature of the network and its infrastructure, in terms of inventory present, its condition, and system use (as traffic) would first be determined from data collection. Performance standards would be set at the policy level, preferably after an optimised strategic level analysis to balance desirable targets with expected financial resources. These performance criteria standards are then used as the basis for identifying appropriate investment choices for life cycle costing management plans. These plans translate into programs of works, and projects should be optimised for efficiency of cost, and then implemented as construction and maintenance works. The network infrastructure would be monitored again in the next annual cycle of data collection to capture any changes, both as deterioration of existing assets, and the addition or repair of assets.
TYPICAL SYSTEM COMPONENTS
The main components of a RIMS are shown in Figure 2. These components are, in terms of their typical configurations and software options:
* Network Monitoring Systems: These systems are used for data collection, and include road inventory and condition, structures inventory & condition, road use traffic data, and revenue data. The information would be passed to the appropriate data storage (and analysis) systems, the Data Repository, the Structures Management System and the Financial Information Management System. The physical data collection should desirably be undertaken through vehicle mounted automatic mechanical field survey equipment or by visual means.
* Data...