Road quality service levels and innovations to meet user expectations.

The first part of the paper gives a description of the ongoing revision of standards related to roads within the framework of improving the standardisation system, i.e. the conversion of the previous compulsory standards into regulations. In the context of developing a road information database, it describes the process of setting up a road meteorological measuring station network to enhance traffic safety as well as the operation of related continuous traffic survey stations and the use of their data. It presents the new geographic information program system of the road databank containing the sizes and condition of the national road network. It deals with the ongoing upgrading of the digital map-based network registration and positioning system and, in association with it, the application of GPS in the supervision of road management (e.g. in winter road operation). Then, it presents the findings of skid resistance measurements carried out recently on pavements with a view to reducing the risk of accidents and the related condition rating limits. It describes methods and instruments (radio, Internet) already applied and under development by road operators to ensure a higher quality information supply to road users. The second part of the report deals with technologies applied to improve the condition of low-trafficked secondary roads, their effectiveness and financing constraints. It presents the findings of observations being made for a decade by the use of a reference section to explore the deterioration process of pavements and the opportunities to use such data. It discusses the ongoing change in the application of a method for allocation of maintenance funds which has the aim of establishing a performance-based allocation of funds. It gives a description of measures taken to date in relation to the adaptation of HDM-4 and PONTIS software in the framework of upgrading the road and bridge management systems as well as of the results achieved. Finally, the report discusses in brief roadside plant caring which is essential for the protection of health (allergy). It gives a detailed description of the methods developed and applied to ensure safe traffic diversion necessary for the rehabilitation and upgrading of a more than 100 km long section of the M7 Motorway, the oldest Hungarian motorway, while allowing traffic to run over it. For the covering abstract see ITRD E135448.