Annualized Road Works Cost Estimates for Unpaved Roads

Providing locally elected officials with reasonable information about the cost of maintaining and improving an unpaved road network is part of the job for those directly responsible for maintaining such a network. This paper describes a simple method for generating estimates of the annualized maintenance and construction costs incurred by small agencies, three Wyoming counties in this case. Several simple inputs are used to estimate the total annualized cost of operating an unpaved road network. Road segments are assigned to one of four functional classes. Treatment costs and frequencies are determined for each functional class. These inputs are used to generate annualized network-level cost estimates for each county. The most difficult aspect of this procedure is generating reasonable treatment cost and frequency information, particularly for rehabilitation and reconstruction costs. The process of generating these inputs, along with the process of assigning roads to functional classes, is described in this paper. Comparisons between the estimates generated using the method presented in this paper and actual costs incurred by two of the counties both demonstrate the feasibility of this method and highlight aspects of this procedure that will benefit from further refinement. Tailoring treatment costs and frequencies to in-place cost tracking methods will make for more precise projection of future costs, particularly for maintenance tasks. The methods presented here are particularly useful for smaller agencies without the resources to undertake highly sophisticated, expensive asset management programs. This methodology may be applied to a wide and diverse range of agencies.