Overview
The aim of EXPECT is to develop methodologies to help National Road Administrations to determine the requirements of different categories of stakeholders and develop effective strategies that address stakeholder expectations. The key areas that will be addressed within the project will include:
- Establishment of who the “stakeholders“ are and their interactions with the different road assets
- An understanding of stakeholder’s perceptions and requirements of the different road assets and the overall network
- Establishment of stakeholder priorities and levels of tolerance (e.g. for unacceptable condition)
- Translation of the factors into measurable parameters (e.g. engineering standards) for the identification of maintenance needs
- Development of methodologies to integrate these factors within the overall asset management process to enable a customer focussed efficient road network.
A cross-asset approach will be adopted to enable optimal allocation of resources to the different asset components to address the short and longer-term requirements of the different stakeholders and deliver value for money.
Funding
Results
Through a series of four work packages a methodology to incorporate stakeholder opinions into the process to inform asset management decisions has been developed and trialled.
The tangible outputs of the project are:
- A review of the current state of the art in stakeholder perceptions and expectations.
- A methodology for performing successful focus group discussions to collect high level data on stakeholder perceptions, expectations and opinions.
- A suitable method for performing ‘accompanied journeys’ to assist the identification of specific stakeholder concerns and to set appropriate levels of service.
- A spreadsheet model using a Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) for prioritising issues identified by stakeholders and incorporating them into the asset management process.
Following early discussions with NRAs the project focused on developing methods to establish road user requirements.
The suggested methodology and the constituent activities are generic, can be used with any group of stakeholders and can be implemented within any NRA’s asset management process. The results can be used in addition to and alongside existing asset management decision making methods. The focus groups and accompanied journeys can help road administrations establish service levels based on stakeholder expectations, incorporate these effectively within the asset management process, and ensure that maintenance strategies meet financial, environmental and social requirements.
A generic methodology incorporating Focus Groups and Accompanied Journeys with road users has been defined to help NRAs improve their understanding of the needs and expectations of different stakeholders in relation to the various categories of highway assets and establish appropriate service levels. A simple methodology, based on MCA has been developed to incorporate the outcomes effectively within an asset management process.