Condition-based capital valuation of a road network

The introduction of resource accounting for public assets in the United Kingdom and elsewhere has brought with it the need to determine the capital value of road networks, including the loss of value due to deterioration in service. Various methods have been proposed for this, some of which have depended on fairly simplistic and arguably inappropriate accountancy practices that are more appropriate for assets with a straight-line depreciation. However, roads are ideally retained in a good order to ensure satisfactory service to the travelling public. As a result of this, considerable work has been undertaken over the last few years to develop a practical way of determining the value of a road network based on its measured condition. This work is now accepted for use in Northern Ireland on non-trunk routes and has proved both useful and effective in operation. The basis for the calculations is presented in this paper.