Integrated performance indicator in urban road infrastructure management

The management of the road sector today is based on goals and results. In urban areas goals are defined in the transport policy set by local government, and the most common objectives in these policies are: accessibility for all users (i.e. vehicles, pedestrian cycle, etc.), safety, environment, transport quality and mobility, asset development and improvement. Decision support system ought to be used for defining and prioritizing different maintenance/improvement activities, in order to ensure the fulfilment of the pre-defined goals. These processes are based on indicators, which measure the effectiveness of the maintenance activities respect to the pre-defined objectives. As matter of fact substantial efforts have been made to define and develop suitable and relevant performance indicators in the past decade. In this study the lessons learned from this findings are used in order to develop a set of performance indicators for management of urban road pavement. An holistic approach is used in developing the framework of indicators, that is hierarchical (articulated in three levels), fully integrated (conversion from technical to key indicators), target oriented (fits the specific target that needs to be measured), and based on measured road attributes. The present paper illustrates the overall framework focusing on methods and criteria used in the development of environmental indicators dealing with relevant issues such as traffic induced noise and vibration. A case study is also presented in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework proposed.