2011 - South Africa - Overview of PMS in a Toll Road Context

This paper provides an overview of the planning, management and the execution of pavement maintenance and rehabilitation works on the N3 Toll Route between Heidelberg (Gauteng) and Cedara (Kwazulu Natal) which is operated by N3 Toll Concession (Pty) Ltd. (N3TC). The paper focuses on the annual cycle of Pavement Management System (PMS) activities needed to sustain and protect the road asset, with an emphasis on procedures required for meeting contractual obligations of functional condition and hand-back criteria for remaining pavement life. The PMS processes are outlined in the context of a Toll Concession, followed by more in-depth discussions of two key aspects of N3TC’s annual PMS cycle, namely (i) compliance and network condition reporting; and (ii) the rule-based deterioration model used for analysing network deterioration under a given maintenance and financial strategy. The paper concludes with a “lessons learnt” section that highlights some of the lessons learnt in the first decade of management of this contract.