Local government authorities across Australia have adopted a variety of pavement management systems (PMSs) for local roads to guide the development of pavement maintenance, rehabilitation programs, and the appropriate allocation of road funding. Many practitioners managing local roads (the majority of which are considered low volume) are becoming disenchanted with their PMS packages, since the forecast of pavement performance does not accurately reflect actual pavement condition. A reason for this deficiency is that the prediction models used in PMSs are based more on the performance of overseas pavements. Pavement deterioration models are a critical component in any PMS, and accurate models are essential in order to better manage roads at both strategic (network) and maintenance work (project) levels to gain greater value from the funding available. To develop appropriate deterioration models for local roads, it was considered necessary to establish a number of sample local road sites at which pavement performance could be monitored over time. The sites selected are representative of local road pavements and cover a range of road types, climatic conditions, traffic loading, soil types, construction techniques, and maintenance practices. The study being undertaken by ARRB Group (formerly the Australian Road Research Board) as a commercial research project to establish deterioration models for low-volume roads across Australia, both sealed and unsealed, is outlined. The methods used to gain national support for the study, methodology adopted, performance criteria established, collection methods used, and interim results are described.
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