Abstract
While they carry only limited traffic volumes, low volume roads perform an essential social function in connecting communities. They form a significant component of the Australian road network and should therefore be constructed and maintained in order to provide a sustainable, effective, efficient, safe and reliable service. However, funding for them is often limited. Therefore, innovative and best practice network management strategies are required to ensure their productivity, safety, usability, social equity, sustainable environmental management, and resilience.
To investigate current strategies for managing them, a survey was conducted of management practices for low volume roads and their networks in New South Wales, Australia. The research found that enhancements to current practices were possible and made recommendations for their improvement. Leveraging funding, ensuring that new low volume roads meet future traffic demands, and continuing to investigate best practices for life cycle based sustainable asset management were found to be the most successful strategies to meet these challenges.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
AASHTO. (2001). Guidelines for geometric design of very low-volume local roads (ADT 400). Washington, DC: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).
ARRB. (1993). Unsealed roads manual: Guidelines to good practice. Vermont South: Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) Ltd.
ARRB Group. (2005, July). Sealed local roads manual—Guidelines to good practice: Design, construction, maintenance and rehabilitation of pavements (Revised and expanded ed.). Vermont South: ARRB Group Ltd.
Austroads. (1998). Responsibilities for local roads (Publication no. AP-129-98). Sydney: Austroads Incorporated.
Austroads. (2000). Use of recycled materials and the management of roadside vegetation on low trafficked roads (Publication no. AP-R154-00). Sydney: Austroads Incorporated.
Austroads. (2006). Asset management of unsealed roads: Literature review, lga survey and workshop (2000–2002) (Publication no. AP-T46-06P). Sydney: Austroads Incorporated.
Austroads. (2009a). Guide to pavement technology part 6: Unsealed pavements (Publication no. AGPT06-09). Sydney: Austroads Ltd.
Austroads. (2009b). Guide to road transport planning (Publication no. AGRTP-09). Sydney: Austroads Incorporated.
Austroads. (2015a). Guide to traffic management part 1: Introduction to traffic management (Publication no. AGTM01-15) (3rd ed.). Sydney: Austroads Ltd.
Austroads. (2015b). Seal design improvement for low volume roads: Technical report (Publication no. AP-T302-15). Sydney: Austraods Ltd.
Austroads. (2016a). Guide to traffic management part 4: Network management (Publication no. AGTM04-16). Sydney: Austroads Ltd.
Austroads. (2016b). Reforming remote and regional road funding in Australia (Publication no. AP-R526-16). Sydney: Ausroads Ltd.
Brundtland, G. H. (1987). Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development—Our common future. New York, NY: United Nations General Assembly.
Bureau of Infrastructure Transport and Regional Economics. (2017). Yearbook 2017: Australian infrastructure statistics, statistical report. Canberra: BITRE.
Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development. (2017). Annual report for the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development 2016–17, Canberra.
Douglas, R. A. (2016). Low-volume road engineering: Design, construction, and maintenance (1st ed.). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Drexhage, J., & Murphy, D. 2010. Sustainable development: From Brundtland to Rio 2012, Background, Paper prepared for consideration by the High Level Panel on Global Sustainability at its first meeting, September 19, 2010.
Faiz, A. (2012). Transportation research circular e-c167: The promise of rural roads: Review of the role of low-volume roads in rural connectivity, poverty reduction, crisis management, and livability. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board of the National Academies.
Giummarra, G. (2003). Establishment of a road classification system and geometric design and maintenance standards for low-volume roads. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1819, 132–140.
Giummarra, G. (2009). Unsealed roads manual: Guidelines to good practice (3rd ed.). ARRB Group: Vermont South.
Howard, J., Jeff Roorda and Associates, & Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia (IPWEA). (2013). Road asset benchmarking project 2012: Road management report. Sydney: IPWEA NSW Division Roads and Transport Directorate.
IPWEA NSW. (2015). Local government functional road classification. Sydney: IPWEA NSW Roads and Transport Directorate.
Irwin, L. H. (2003). Foreword to eighth international conference on low-volume roads 2003. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1819, xvii–xviii.
Verity, S. (2018). 2017 Road management report: Road asset benchmarking project/prepared by Steve Verity, Technologyone. Sydney: IPWEA NSW Division, Roads and Transport Directorate.
World Road Association. (2003). Technical Committee 16 Network Operations. Road network operations handbook. World Road Association.
Zimmerman, K., & Peshkin, D. (2003). Applying pavement preservation concepts to low-volume roads. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1819, 81–87.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Franzen, T., Thorpe, D. (2020). Sustainable Development and Management of Low-Volume Road Networks in Australia. In: Scott, L., Dastbaz, M., Gorse, C. (eds) Sustainable Ecological Engineering Design. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44381-8_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44381-8_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-44380-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-44381-8
eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)