Sustainable development and management of low-volume road networks in Australia

While low volume roads carry only limited volumes of traffic, they perform an essential social function through connecting communities, many of which are located in rural areas. These roads form a significant component of the Australian road network and should be constructed and maintained in a sustainable manner providing an ongoing effective, efficient, safe and reliable service. However, funding for them is often ranked at a lower priority than for roads with larger traffic volumes. Therefore, innovative and best practice network management strategies are required to ensure the productivity, safety, usability, social equity, sustainable environmental management, and resilience of these roads. In order to further investigate current strategies for managing these roads, a survey was conducted of management practices for low volume roads and their networks in 38 local government areas, primarily located in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). The research found that enhancements to the current practices were possible and made several recommendations for improvement. The study was also successful in defining the term “low volume road” for both sealed and unsealed roads in NSW. It identified approaches to improve the level of service provided by these roads and their networks by improved planning, design, and construction practices, along with lifecycle management and renewal strategies. It was also found that additional information specifically relating to these roads is required to be collected, recorded, and made accessible to asset managers in a formal system that supports key renewal decisions backed by sound evidence. There was significant opportunity to increase the level of road safety reviews for these roads. 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; development and preservation were found to be the most successful strategies to meet these challenges