FORMAT - Fully Optimised Road Maintenance
Overview
Background & policy context:
The operation of seamless intermodal door-to-door transport chains across Europe requires research to enable the cost-effective development and maintenance of infrastructures and nodal areas as well as to identify and realise promising alternative transport concepts.
The FORMAT project, which addressed Task 2.2.1/11 ‘Road infrastructure pavement maintenance management’ of the European Commission Key Action ‘Sustainable Mobility and Intermodality’, was designed to conduct in-depth research into highway maintenance works in order to improve the efficiency, safety and cost of the maintenance works by appropriate planning, timing and execution of work zone operations.
Objectives:
The objectives of the project were:
- to provide better performing road pavement maintenance techniques and procedures that will reduce traffic disruption at road works, thus reducing congestion and improving safety;
- to develop an integrated cost-benefit analysis model that addresses key aspects of pavement maintenance, including road user costs;
- to produce safety strategies for road works for arranging the work site lay-out and the timing of maintenance intervention to maximise the safety of road users and workers;
- to propose methods, procedures and equipment for monitoring the condition of road pavements at traffic speeds to minimise the number of road closures currently required for acquiring pavement condition data.
Methodology:
In order to achieve its wide ranging objectives, the project considered key aspects of the planning and execution of the pavement maintenance process and it was organised into 7 integrated groups of activities comprising:
- 4 scientific Work Packages within which the research was conducted;
- 1 Work Package (‘Elaboration’) to develop the detailed methodology to conduct the research;
- 1 marketing Work Package (‘Exploitation’) to enable the research results to be implemented within Europe;
- 1 management Work Package (‘Management’) to control and direct the project to achieve the agreed objectives.
The 4 scientific Work Packages addressed the following topics that were considered to be key to road pavement maintenance:
1) Pavement maintenance techniques and procedures (‘Technology’). The main activities were to review the developments in pavement maintenance technology throughout Europe and North America and identify the main innovations in this field concentrating on the most promising innovative maintenance techniques for both asphalt and concrete roads. Selected promising innovative treatment options were assessed and evaluated through accelerated testing in specialised full-scale road pavement test facilities. Pilot road trials were conducted on public roads to determine the efficiency of application of selected maintenance treatments, to provide data for the cost benefit models and to assess effective traffic management requirements.
2) Associated cost-benefit analysis methods (‘Cost Benefit Analysis’). An integrated cost benefit spreadsheet model taking into account the costs due to pavement deterioration, additional user costs and safety at the work sites was developed. In addition, environmental aspects such as benefits arising from recycling of road pavements and the reduction in noise from new innovative road surfaces were also modelled. The new models were assessed using data from in-service roads and from the pilot road trials conducted int the previous groups of activities (‘Technology’) in order to determine their applicability in practical situations.
3) Safety at work sites (‘Safety’). It addressed issues relating to enabling the engineering requirements of road maintenance treatments to be carried out while optimising safety of both road workers and users. The safety implications of different traffic management options, inclu
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