THE MAINTENANCE AND DESIGN SYSTEM: A MANAGEMENT AID FOR UNPAVED ROAD NETWORKS

The Maintenance and Design System (MDS) is a model that was developed to determine the effects of alternative maintenance budgets on the vehicle operating costs of a network of unpaved roads. It also is used to identify those roads for which an upgrade to a bituminous standard would be economically justified. It can be used in the framework of a management system to assess a desirable level of funding and the way resources should be allocated. It also indicates the distribution of work needed over the network in physical terms. The application is illustrated by means of a case study in which assumptions inherent in the model are indicated and recommendations are for further research. Although a need clearly exists for improving the accuracy and scope of the MDS, the fact that it provides an orderly framework for collecting and evaluating the characteristics and needs of unpaved networks is in itself significant. Discrepancies between the system's outputs and practice can be corrected with experience for each region in which it is applied. Maintenance operations can then be effectively controlled and budget requests can routinely be supported on economic grounds.