The Effect of Restricted Budgets for Road Maintenance

In connection with the world wide economic pressure severe reductions of the states’ budgets take place. Drastic savings are forced from all sectors of the public households and thus from the road sector as well. Therefore the responsible road operators and administrations really need good arguments for discussions with the politicians to make sure that enough money is available for the road maintenance sector, even in competition with other sectors like e.g. social matters. A basic study funded within the ERANET Road project was finished in 2009. This study was attributed to a Europe wide survey of the definition and the use of maintenance backlog of the road asset in a representative sample of European road administrations. Following this study a comprehensive investigation on the effects of restricted budgets for maintenance (strengthening, rehabilitation, replacement) on the condition of the pavements of state road network in Austria was conducted using available PMS-data. The results of the study are showing the increase of sections with a condition backlog until 2020 if only the actual budget is available the need of additional money the keep the actual (often not satisfying) condition until 2020 and to fulfill even lower trigger values of backlog the reduction of the value of the pavement asset until 2020 if only the actual budget is available. It is expected that this study could support the road administrations in their efforts for sufficient financial means to fulfill their tasks in sustainable way.