The ROMAN software package was originally developed in a mainframe environment, and was the result of the collaborative efforts of a number of Local Government engineers from eastern Perth metropolitan Councils and the then Main Roads Department (now MRWA). Over time it has evolved from the centralised mainframe to being a localised PC based program, running since 1998 in a Windows operating environment.
Councils submit data on a regular, annual basis to MRWA which uses the information to maintain complete State of Construction maps and inventories for the entire State road network. In recent years, considerable funds have been provided from the WA Local Government Road Funding Agreement.
Data is also sent to the Western Australian Local Government Grants Commission where it forms the basis for the Western Australian Asset Preservation Model. This is then used to distribute the road grant portion of the Federal grants to Local Government, including Roads to Recovery. It also plays a part in the distribution of State road funding grants to Councils.
Jointly owned by MRWA and IPWEA (WA), ROMAN is managed by the Western Australian Local Government Association. As a desktop road asset management tool it provides the following.
- A detailed inventory of roads, paths and point items together with their age and current condition rating
- A valuation package that allows councils to meet the needs of AAS 27.
- An indicative works program feature.
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All local authorities are provided with the inventory module free of charge, and 133 of the possible 142 mainland and two Indian Ocean Territory Councils pay a low, annual maintenance fee to access the Valuations and Deterioration/ Works Programming functions.The indicative works program uses the stored condition ratings, together with cost zones and task triggers to arrive at a list of prioritised road works based on need.
Council users can either use the supplied default task triggers and cost zones, or they can make use of user defined sets. These user defined sets can reflect local conditions, costs, or community agreed standards for road construction and maintenance. ROMAN currently has a rudimentary mapping tool that allows visual display of all information that is stored. There is work under way to integrate a GIS tool within the program.
Following agreement between the owners, a commercial package will soon be available for non Western Australian Government and Local Government road authorities. For further information, contact ROMAN Project Manager, Linton Reynolds, on 0419 963 143.
