Electre Method – Decision-Making Tool for the Analysis of the Roads Technical State

Abstract

Roads are terrestrial communication paths specially designed for the movement of vehicles and pedestrians and part of the national transport system. Maintaining proper road conditions is essential for traffic safety and road network availability. There are a number of factors that impact the decision-making process regarding the road structure programme management, including the technical condition of the roads, traffic safety, heavy traffic, the cost of maintenance works and the low funding allocated to this sector. Thus, an effective approach is needed to attain a balance between the program of maintenance/repair/rehabilitation activities and the works that can be executed within the limits of the available funds, so that the investment achieves the highest profitability. This paper aims to analyze the technical state of the road network in Romania using a multi-criteria decision analysis method, namely Electre method. The method was applied on only four sectors of National Road 1 (the method requires a large number of parameters: weights and different thresholds assigned by the road network authorities) and aimed at identifying those road sections with the most severe conditions regarding the technical condition of the roads.