DEVELOPMENT OF MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR URBAN ROADS

Abstract

For economic development of a nation, roads are fundamental infrastructure requirement. Road network in India is second largest in the world, having more than 3.34 million kilometers of length at present. Urban roads are more than 2.5 lac Kilometers which is around 10.18 %. The urban roads particularly those in metropolitan cities carry large traffic volume and the economic loss due to poor condition of road amounts to a huge sum in spite of their small mileage. There are various factors responsible for early damage of pavement in urban areas like large traffic volume, spillage of oil, abrasion by traffic, leakage from sewers and water supply lines, inadequate drainage system etc. Among them, inadequate drainage is most responsible for the failure of city roads as there is no natural drainage in case of urban roads. One of the best examples is Patna urban roads where drainage problem is harsh resulting in great frustration among commuters and road users. The objective of this study is to develop a Maintenance Management System for an identified Urban Road network. In India, an operational MMS methodology, supported by adequate indigenous tools is not available for the development of maintenance management system for urban roads. In view of universal recognition and application of HDM-4 system, it has been used for the development of maintenance management system for the identified urban road network. This methodology includes identification and selection of the urban road network, data acquisition and database management, and adaption of HDM-4 pavement deterioration models for urban conditions. Patna Urban Road network comprise of segments of Arterial roads (Bailey iv Road, Bankipur Danapur Road and Danapur Khagol Road) has been selected and divided into 18 homogeneous pavement sections. The inventory and pavement condition data in respect of all pavement sections have been collected using equipments, such as, Merlin, Loadman, Portable Skid Resistance Tester, and Straight Edge, etc. All the collected data have been stored in databases, created in HDM-4. An optimum maintenance and rehabilitation strategy for a pavement section has been determined on the basis of highest NPV/Cost ratio, amongst a number of pre-defined M&R strategies. The remaining service life for all pavement sections has been determined indicating the inevitability of reconstruction in the near future, in the absence of any maintenance management policy. The life-cycle cost analysis of the selected Urban Road network has been carried out for both M & R and Drainage Work, and an unconstrained works program has been prepared for the defined analysis period. The work strategy and intervention criteria for drainage work have been proposed along with maintenance and rehabilitation strategy. The total budget requirements for maintenance management of the whole urban network have been determined for both maintenance and rehabilitation and drainage work. An optimized and prioritized works program has also been prepared for the available budget. The prioritization of pavement sections has been done on the basis of decreasing NPV/Cost ratio. Based on present study, it is recommended to develop similar kind of MMS for other categories of roads such as Sub-Arterial Roads, Collector and Local Streets using the inputs of MMS methodology presented in this study. The scope of present study may be extended for the development of MMS methodology for the Urban Road network having rigid pavements.