Australia’s road network is critical to the nation’s economy. Being a large land with a small population means that it is a costly infrastructure item to build and maintain.
For Local Government around the country, the responsibility of maintaining local road networks places a particular burden on budgets which are already strained under various pressures. These can include rate capping, national competition policy, funding limitations and competitive tendering requirements.
Public expenditure is under scrutiny as never before but at the same time responsibility has not decreased. In Victoria, where competitive tendering is in full swing, in spite of operations being transferred to service providers, there are still requirements for contract management, assessment of performance, identification and responses to client needs including unspecified essential works.
In addition, the Council is ultimately responsible for the quality and standard of the provision of roads. Clancy Phillipe, Manager Local Roads and Transport Services ARRB Transport Research, identifies the following key issues that need to be addressed in the management of this essential asset.
- Reducing the dependency on new asset solutions through managing demand and extending the life of existing assets.
- Reducing costs through better planning and asset rationalisation.
- Setting asset management and performance standards that can identify the service return on those assets.
- Ensuring the level of asset holding is sustainable.
- Managing the rate of asset replacement so that it is matched to the rate of asset consumption.
- Ensuring assets meet service provision requirements.
- Maximising community benefits.
He believes that delaying planning and decision making in this area will only compound existing problems and result in higher costs. Infrastructure funding he believes needs to be addressed, focusing in particular on the need to renew existing capital.
Funding limitations have curtailed a lot of new work and renewal programs are not being implemented, creating the preconditions for much greater financial burdens in the future. Bill Lewis, a visiting American engineer states that of 100,000 bridges, 42,000 are unsafe, but still being used in the USA!
Bill believes rather than spending time lobbying for money to replace such assets as roads and bridges on a piecemeal basis, it is far better to organise, debate and plan more appropriate and cost effective solutions now.
For further information contact Clancy Phillipe, telephone (03) 9881 1507.
