Improvement of the physical condition of the national low-traffic secondary road network
has been a largely discussed topic in Hungary in recent years as this part of the
state road network exceeds 10 000 km. Maintenance measures must not be planned and
scheduled on exclusive principles of efficiency, as every country has examples for
secondary roads with low traffic volume which may not meet the standards of efficiency
because of their low traffic volumes, despite their lamentably poor pavement conditions.
However, low traffic volume secondary roads form an organic part of the national road
network, thus deterioration of these roads affects serviceability in a negative manner
regarding the complete network. Social justice quoted, users of such roads rightfully
claim that maintenance of low traffic secondary roads shall be covered by central
budget sources as well. Planning and scheduling of these interventions may therefore
be executed on normative grounds, i.e. by specifically earmarked programs. Nowadays
a multi-criteria analysis has been proposed in order to determine the priority ranking
and the adequate maintenance intervention for selected secondary roads. Factors in
the proposed multi-criteria analysis include traffic volume, road condition characteristics
(unevenness, surface distresses and load bearing capacity), expected cost and lifetime
of the planned maintenance intervention, network and accessibility features as well
as the existence of public transport, the relative social and economical importance
of the given road and other non-financial factors. The adequate maintenance intervention
choice is depending mainly on the road condition characteristics and the type of the
existing pavement structure. The proper management of secondary roads requires innovative
road management policies that are extremely difficult to implement in the era of a
general economic crisis. Minor results have already been achieved utilising EU funds
in co-financed programs.
