Rural Road Maintenance Prioritization Index Based on Functional and Structural Parameters for Rural Road Network In Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

Pavements are essential assets of highways which need timely maintenance for efficient use of road maintenance fund. The deferred pavement maintenance strategies result in enormous economic loss and severely affect the development of any country. The available fund for road maintenance is also limited. Hence, for proper utilization of road maintenance funds, it is required to assess the condition of pavements which needs to be maintained first and is in worst conditions. Rural Roads in Himachal Pradesh, India plays a vital role in the development of the state as it connects the rural regions with the urban ones. With an increasing pace of rural road construction of 1000 Km per year and introduction of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY), the total rural road network contribution in the state is approximately 26000 Km with 62% of tarred roads. To preserve this critical asset, along with the rapid construction pace of this vast rural road network, simultaneous maintenance is also required promptly. In this context, prioritization of pavements is required to assess the pavement conditions and providing maintenance to the deprived ones. Various pavement indexes such as Pavement Condition Index (PCI), Roughness Index (RI), etc., have been used to assess the condition of pavements. An attempt has been made to develop Rural Road Maintenance Priority Index (RRMPI) for the rural road network in Himachal Pradesh, India. Rural Road Maintenance Priority Index is a function of Overall Functional Condition Index (OFCI) and Overall Structural Condition Index (OSCI). RRMPI is an index of scale 0-100, in which 0 signifies the worst condition of pavement and 100 signifies the best condition of the pavement. The developed RRMPI is also compared with the currently available pavement maintenance prioritization solution based on objective Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The proposed index is expected to provide a better reflection of pavement condition as compared to other developed traditional method and helps in prioritizing maintenance strategies. In the present study, the developed RRMPI has been used to select a maintenance strategy for the selected 12 rural road stretches in Himachal Pradesh.