Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 1 30 Sep 02 ROAD MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS – IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ROAD MENTOR 4 SYSTEM IN THE CENTRAL ZONE by Eng.T Mosso*, Eng. D .Weston**, Eng. J Katala***,Eng. J Mallya**** and Eng. N Mwangosi**** *Central Zone Director, TANROADS, Arusha, Tanzania **Senio r Highway Engineer, TRL Limit ed, UK *** Project Coordinator, TANROADS, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania **** Project Engineers, TANROADS, Central Zone-Arusha, Tanzania ABSTRACT Following the re-organisation of the roads sector and the formation of TANROADS and the Road Funds Board in 2000, there has been a greater need for a Road Management System to cover the whole of the national trunk and regional roads network. Performance targets are a feature of the new road maintenance arrangements. Since the beginning of 2001 TANROADS has been working with TRL Limited of the UK under a project managed by TANROADS and jointly funded by DFID and the Roads Fund Board, to provide an improved version of a project level system, Road Mentor 3. The improved system, Road Mentor 4, as well as being more suited to network use, has been rewritten in Visual Basic and uses Microsoft Access tables to store data, both in order to be compatible with current operating systems. It can be run on PCs equipped with either Windows 98 or 2000. The main modules of the new Road Mentor 4 programme were completed early in 2002. It was realised that considerable effort would be needed to populate the system with reliable and compatible data. Consequently a 2 nd phase of the project is being carried out in which, with TRL assistance, the Road Mentor System would be implemented just within a single Zone. Experience gained in this exercise would be used to plan the subsequent implementation across the rest of Tanzania. This paper describes the progress made up to the end of September 2002 in implementing The Road Mentor system within the Central Zone and describes the general features of the system. Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 2 30 Sep 02 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 General Following the re-organisation of the Tanzanian roads sector and the formation of TANROADS and the Road Funds Board in 2000, there has been a greater need for a Road Management System to cover the whole of the national trunk and regional roads network. The main objectives of establishing the computerised Road Maintenance Management System (RMMS) are t o o pt imise t he use o f limit ed reso urces available fo r maint enance wo rks; t o have a systematic approach and planning of road maintenance works programmes and to reduce the entire transport costs through proper and timely maintenance works. Since the beginning of 2001 TANROADS has been working with TRL Limit ed o f t he UK under a project managed by TANROADS and jointly funded by DFID and the Roads Fund Board, to provide an improved version of a project level system, Road Mentor 3 (Katala and Toole, 2000). The improved system, Road Mentor 4, as well as being more suited to network use, has been rewritten in Visual Basic and uses Microsoft Access tables to store data, both in order to be compatible with current operating systems. It can be run on PCs equipped with either Windows 98 or 2000. The main modules of the new Road Mentor 4 programme were completed early in 2002. At this time it had become evident during condition surveys carried out in 2001 that there would be considerable effort needed to populate the system with reliable and compatible data. Also, it was realised that the final features of Road Mentor could only be determined after some use of the system. Consequently a 2 nd phase of the project was carried out in which, with TRL assistance, the Road Mentor System would be implemented just within a single Zone. Experience gained in this exercise would be used to plan the subsequent implementation across the rest of the country. This paper describes the progress made up to the end of October 2002 in implementing Road Mentor within Central Zone and describes the general features of the system. The Road Mentor 4 system includes data on road ordnance, road inventory, pavement co ndit io n, t raffic and wo rks hist o ry. It also includes a mo dule which will ident ify ho mo geneo us ro ad sect io ns and creat e a file o f det ails fo r use wit h HDM-4 which will be used as the principal tool for strategic, programme and project analysis of maintenance. 2 DESCRIPTION OF ROAD MENTOR 4 2.1 General The Road Mentor system is based on a series of tables contained in an Access database. Data in these tables is viewed, input and edited via a programme written in Visual Basic. Whilst data held within the system can be viewed through various screens it is expected that the main means o f viewing syst em dat a will be t hro ugh a series o f st andard repo rt s creat ed using Crystal Reports software. The entire TANROADS network has been divided into Links which is defined as a length of road between two defined points in the road network, termed nodes. Nodes are defined as points on the ground that identifies permanent physical features of the road network. Typically, nodes are placed at the start and end of roads; intersections where two or more roads meet; regional and district capitals; major towns and at administrative boundaries. Each link is divided into a number of sub-links each 1 km in length together with an end sub-link which is usually a part ial kilo met re. Ro ad Ment o r 4 is int ended t o be used as a net wo rk info rmat io n syst em t hat will be used t o assemble, organise and store data about road network. Most of the data tables are split into Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 3 30 Sep 02 records for a 1 kilometre length of road. The typical, average or dominant values of a particularly feature such as pavement type, road width or overall condition are contained in each record. The distances of culverts, bridge centres and junctions from the start of a sub- link, measured to the nearest 1 metre are recorded. 2.2 Input Screens The User is presented with a number of screens at several levels. The first screen seen on entry to the system is the Highway Ordnance screen at Level 1, see Figure 1. From here the User can obtain access to Level 2 screens from a series of buttons on the Highway Ordnance screen. A further level of screens is available from the Inventory level 2 screen. The overall structure of the screens is shown in Figure 2. Figure 1: Main Ordnance Screen 2.3 System Security The Road Mentor system allows for three types of users and aim to maintain the integrity of the data while allowing access to users as required. The types of user are: User: who will need t o access the data but not make any changes to the data; Data Technician: who will update the data from surveys; Supervisor: who will be able t o update the master Highway Ordnance table and will also control the Usernames and passwords used to allow access to relevant areas of the system. All t ypes o f user will be able t o run repo rt s o f any o f t he dat a 2.4 Highway Ordnance The Highway Ordnance table in the Road Mentor system holds the key reference to all roads and links in the system. In normal usage only the System Manager can edit existing data and add new data to this screen. During the substantial editing that has been necessary during the init ial pilo t ing o f t he syst em t his has been relaxed t o allo w Dat a Technicians also t o edit . There are built-in checks to ensure that both Node and Link numbers are not repeated. (A fundamental principle of the Tanzanian ordnance is that these items are uniquely numbered.) Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 4 30 Sep 02 Figure 2: Structure of the Road Mentor Screens ORDNANCE SCREEN (Level 1) NODES (L2) SURVEYS (L2 ) WORKS HISTORY (L2) TRAFFIC (L2) INVENTORY (Level 2) Pavement details Bridges (L3) Culverts (L3) Junctions (L3) Paved / Unpaved Condition (L3) DATA SELECTION FOR REPORTS (Level 2) L3 Regions/Corridor/Class L4 Road and Link Nos. L5 Type and Condition EXPORT HDM NETWORKS (L2) L3 Zone/Roads/ Committed works L4 Condition criteria L5 T reatment criteria L6 Export file REPORTS (Level 2) Ordnance Inventory detail & summary Pa vement type summa r y Paved Roads Condition (4 Rpts) Unpaved Roads Condition (4 Rpts) Culverts detail & summary Bridges Detail Bridges Summary Traffic HDM Export (Total of 18 Reports) Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 5 30 Sep 02 A grid o n t he left -hand side o f t he screen sho ws a list o f all links and relat ed ro ad numbers in the Highway Ordnance database table and is the master reference for all data held in the system. Data for specific links can be viewed by selecting the relevant link. The Ordnance screen displays the following data for a selected link: Road number, Link number, Region, Corridor, Start and End Nodes: Number, name and longitude and latitude Ro ad lengt h, Traffic det ails, Climat e and Alt it ude. The longitude and latitude of the nodes has been introduced as a measure to improve the recognition of nodes, which are generally unmarked, and in some instances can be difficult to identify. TANROADS has acquired several hand-held Garmin 12XL Global Positioning System (GPS) units, which are used by the survey teams to verify their locations at doubtful locations. This is not the primary means of locating nodes but can be very useful in cases of uncertainty. Node description notes which have been prepared by Regional Manager’s offices are primarily used to identify nodes. 2.5 Inventory The general features for this screen are shown in Figure 3. This displays some of the Ordnance information to confirm the location of the selection, together with information on the more or less permanent features of the road such as: types of surfacing and base, road width, shoulder type and width, gradient, curvature, single or dual, number of lanes, cross-section, guard rails and signs, drainage, railway crossings, and adjacent land use. The precise location and other details of Bridges, Culverts and junctions are entered through level 3 screens accessed via the buttons on the Inventory screen. Figure 3: Inventory Screen Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 6 30 Sep 02 2.6 Condition Data The screens for entry and viewing of condition survey data are accessed via the Inventory screen. Paved road condition data consists of roughness, measured using the Road Measurement Data Acquisition System (ROMDAS) mounted in a special vehicle fitted with a bump integrator, and the 20 key rating keyboard for other visually assessed defects. The schematic presentation of the ROMDAS system is summarised in figure 4. The Paved Net wo rk Co ndit io n screen in Ro ad Ment o r will allo w input o f t he fo llo wing condition data for each sub-link (1km): Surface type, shoulder type, surface Loss, overall co ndit io n, rut t ing, po t ho les, pat ching, wide cracks, ravelling, bleeding, st ripping, sho ulder condition, drainage condition, roughness and the need for urgent works. The condition parameters are expressed in numerical values usually on a scale of 1 to 5, defined in the Road Mentor Data Collection Manual (TANROADS, 2002). Unpaved road condition data for unpaved roads are collected by visual assessment during a drive over survey recording the following data for each sub-link: Surface type, spot impro vement needed, o verall co ndit io n, drainage co ndit io n, side slo pes co ndit io n, sho ulder condition, carriageway shape, carriageway surface condition, need for urgent works, condition of culverts, need for culvert repairs, need for new bridges, need for bridge repair and need for river protection. Again, the condition parameters are expressed in numerical values usually on a scale of 1 to 5, defined in the Road Mentor Data Collection Manual. Figure 4: The ROMDAS system Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 7 30 Sep 02 2.7 Export of HDM-4 network file The HDM-4 invest ment analysis mo del is used t o invest igat e net wo rk level st rat egies and programmes and project level analyses. The HDM-4 model requires information on the net wo rk, which will be impo rt ed fro m t he Ro ad Ment o r asset management syst em. HDM-4 export file module in the Road Mentor 4 is used to create homogeneous sections automatically by using a series of rules and thereby creating an HDM-4 export file. The expo rt file creat ed is co mpat ible wit h t he HDM-4 input requirement s. The user will be able t o specify the roads to be included in the following manner: • Road type (paved , unpaved or both) • Road class (trunk, regional or both) • Zone (one or all) • Specific road (one road or all) • Committed works (to be identified as specific sections or not) . The user will also have co nt ro l o ver t he Co ndit io n Sect io ning crit eria, which are: • Traffic range • Roughness range (IRI m/km) • Cracking parameter • Pavement age • Structural Number - considered, Yes or No • Carriageway width - considered, Yes or No • Traffic flow - considered, Yes or No The final stage of selection allows the user to combine sections with the same treatments. The number of sections resulting from the current criteria can be displayed and the criteria adjusted to produce more or fewer sections as required. Finally the details of the accepted homogeneous section is exported to an HDM4 compatible file co nt aining all t he sect io n det ails required fo r full HDM-4 analysis. Pro ject , pro gramme and strategic analyses would be carried out in HDM-4 and results used in decision making process on various roads investments options and strategies. Figure 5 illust rat e t he link bet ween Ro ad Ment o r syst em and HDM-4 mo del Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 8 30 Sep 02 Figure 5: The Road Mentor and HDM-4 configuration. 2.8 Reports Individual records can be viewed through the different screens, already described. However to get a more general impression of the various types of data it is expected that standard report such as a link in the Highway Ordnance or a sub-link record in the Inventory. A report can be generated for any length of road from as little as a part of a single link to the whole of Tanzania. A wide range of selection criteria has been built into the selection process that is carried out on three tab screens (see Figure 1). The user can select the roads to be reported, on the basis of • Location (Regions, Zones whole of Tanzania), • Road classes (Trunk or Regional), • Road numbers, Link numbers, • Pavement type Survey Data (Romdas) Road Mentor HDM-4 Import File (Road Network) HDM-4 Analysis Configuration data Vehicle Fleets Work Standards Run Data Budget forecasts, Optimum standards, Benefits, etc Traffic data Highway ordinance Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 9 30 Sep 02 • Pavement condition (roughness or overall condition. In general, two basic types of reports can be produced – summary and detailed reports. Summary reports are designed to present data for regions, a group of roads or a long road. Det ailed repo rt s will pro vide mo re dat a o n individual ro ads o r links. So far 18 standard reports have been created in the system plus two special reports used to assist in the control of data input. The reports are listed in Figure 2. Examples of the following reports described hereunder are given in Appendix A: Ordnance report This reports give the detailed information about the road network in a particular region. The info rmat io n which is available in t he o rdinance repo rt include; Ro ad Number, link numbers, no de names and numbers, link lengt hs, GPS co o rdinat es and summary o f ro ad lengt hs and total length of road network for a particular region. This report form a basis for road referencing system and it can be used for planning purposes and for network condition surveys. Inventory Summary report This repo rt s summarises invent o ry det ails info rmat io n abo ut t he ro ad net wo rk , it pro vide pavement lengths, Pavement area, shoulder length, shoulder area, Number of culverts, Number of sublinks with side drains, number of mitre drains, number of bridges, Number of ro ad signs, guards rail lengt hs, number o f junct io ns, number o f railway cro ssings and number o f sub links. All det ailed info rmat io n abo ut t hese it ems are available in t he invent o ry det ailed repo rt . Invent o ry info rmat io n are useful fo r planning, pro gramming and budgeting purposes. They are the basis and one of the components of RMMS. Paved roads Roughness report This report provide information about the condition of the road network in terms of roughness. This report is a result of roughness surveys and it represents roughness in terms of IRI m/km. It displays the roughness for sublinks for a particular region and thereby enabling planners and policy makers to understand the state of the network under their jurisdiction for planning and decision making. The pie chart could also be used to demonstrate the performance of a road network in subsequent years. Unpaved Roads Condition This report provide information about the overall condition of the road sub-network. The road sub-network condition is represented by numbers from 1to 5, meaning very good to very poor respect ively. Again, t his repo rt pro vide useful info rmat io n fo r planning and pro gramming o f maintenance works and it could be used to monitor the performance of the road sub-network in fo llo wing years These reports can be previewed from the Road Mentor system and then printed as required. It is also po ssible t o expo rt any o f t he repo rt s in Excel, Wo rd o r PDF fo rmat . This will allo w for more elaborate analysis, incorporation into other documents or to be transmitted electronically to a user without direct access to Road Mentor. New reports can easily be added as the system develops. Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 10 30 Sep 02 3 IMPLEMENTATION IN CENTRAL ZONE During 2001, before Road Mentor 4 was completed, the first condition survey of the paved road network was carried out using the ROMDAS system. Condition surveys were also carried out on the unpaved networks of Kagera and Dodoma regions. All this condition data was input to the Access database tables inherited from the old Road Mentor 3 system and which, in due course, would also be used by Road Mentor 4. The original Inventory surveys had been carried out by several firms of consultants in 1995 and 1996 and input into Road Mentor 3 shortly after. During t he implement at io n pro cess, It was no t iced t hat t here was a co mpat ibilit y pro blem between Ordinance, inventory and condition data. Being the case, a series of activities have been carried out to rectify the problem. Proper ordinance and inventory data are pre-requisite and basis for a good Road Maintenance Management System. The activities include: • Node Location survey • Verification of Road links and Link lengths • Inventory surveys 3.1 Node Location survey It was impractical on the grounds of costs and time to install a system of node markers. TANROADS therefore made the decision to describe in detail all the nodes and sketch plan for complex situations. In addition, a number of Garmin hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) units were used coordinate all the nodes. 3.2 Verification of Links and link lengths All road links under TANROADS jurisdiction were verified and uncertainties about ownership between TANROADS and Local Authorities were clarified. The ROMDAS system was used as a digital trip meter to measure distances for all the links. 3.3 Inventory surveys After Node location survey and verification of link lengths, Inventory surveys were carried out. Brantz precise odometers were used for distance measurements during inventory surveys. It is intended that all future surveys of any kind would be carried out using these devices. As the ultimate goal is to achieve a near-perfect match of Ordnance and Inventory sub-links (1km) with subsequent condition survey sub-links (1km), all survey lengths need to be measured to an accuracy of better than ± 0.5km. The Brantz odometers, with proper calibration, can indicate distance within ± 0.4%. This implies that a link length of 50km is approximately the maximum that can be accepted. On the shorter links, say 10km, this performance is easily achieved. 3.4 Quality assurance A Data Collection Manual was produced during the first phase of the Road Mentor Project and has since been revised to correct omissions and reflect small changes in the way the data is input to Road Mentor 4. An additional set of procedures has been developed to ensure that data collection and input is carried out correctly and efficiently. This covers such issues as: • Specifying of Surveys Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 11 30 Sep 02 • Provision of Ordnance reports and Node descriptions to survey teams • Need to check Link lengths with Ordnance values • Proper referencing of data forms • Acceptable tolerances for GPS Nodes longitude and latitude values and Link lengths • Review of Completed Survey Forms before data input • Data input to Road Mentor • Final Review of data input • Verificat io n o f input dat a wit h field co ndit io ns 3.5 Future Survey Cycle At the commencement of the 2 nd phase of the project, discussions were held at Head Quarters, Zone and Regional levels to establish a tentative annual programme of condition surveys, data input, and preparation of the maintenance programme and release of the revised Road Mentor dat abase t o all TANROADS o ffices. The pro bable pro gramme is: • Ordnance and Inventory Revisions As far as possible any adjustments or re-surveys would be carried out and input to Road Mentor before December of each year so as to be available for the condition survey teams. Adjustments might come from any changes to the network ordnance, inventory and from the records taken from works programmes, but a typical re-survey interval would be set at 5 years int erval • Paved Roads Condition Surveys These surveys would be carried out by HQ staff using the ROMDAS system in the period of December to February each year and would require minimal input from Regional staff. For resource reasons possibly not all would be included. If this was the case the choice of which roads were to be surveyed would be discussed with the Regional Managers. All data input would be by HQ staff and would be completed by the end of February each year. • Unpaved Roads Condition Surveys: These would be carried out by the Regional staff under the direction of the Zone Office, in December to February and would use precise odometers and GPS units to ensure a good match of survey data with the Ordnance and Inventory. All data input would be done at the Zone Office and also to be completed by the end of February and would probably involve data technicians seconded from one of the Regional Offices. • Preparation of Maintenance Programmes This wo uld no rmally be carried o ut at HQ in t he perio d March t o April by using HDM-4 mo del. • Release of Revised Database At the end of April of each year a new national version of the Road Mentor Database will be released fo r all users. This will co nt ain all t he recently collected condition data and any Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 12 30 Sep 02 Ordnance and Invent o ry revisio ns. HQ users will be able t o o bt ain new versio ns via t he TANROADS HQ net wo rk but in t he sho rt t erm CDs will have t o be issued t o Zo nal and Regional users. 4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS i. The ordnance and inventory data for 7000km of paved and unpaved roads in the Central Zone is complete and in place after verification of ordinance and new inventory surveys. The nodes have been fully described and links verified. Consequently, the Road Mentor system database now represents the accurate road net wo rk dat a in t he zo ne. On fut ure implement at io n in t he o t her Zo nes, a pro cedure will be reco mmended t hat will first ly check and adjust t he ro ad o rdnance prio r t o proceeding with any inventory or condition surveys. ii. The absence of node and distance markers on road network makes surveys difficult to manage. However, the routine use of precise odometers and GPS units has been found t o o verco me t his pro blem. In fut ure, it is reco mmended t o carry o ut lo cat io n reference surveys (LRP) to establish distance markers on road network. iii. Road Mentor now contains condition data for: • the entire national paved network (3800kms) measured in 2001; • the whole of the Central Zone unpaved network (5319 km) measured in 2001 and 2002; • the unpaved network of Kagera Region (1434 kms) measured in 2001. iv. Ro ad Ment o r no w has t he facilit y t o ident ify sect io ns o f ro ad wit h unifo rm co ndit io n. This module can be used to create an export file for HDM-4 for maintenance pro gramming. A maint enance pro gramme fo r t he paved ro ad net wo rk, based o n t he condition data available in the Road Mentor database collected in 2001, has now been produced (refer Marmo et al-ARC 2002 paper). In addition, the system has got traffic mo dule whereby all t raffic dat a will be input and assigned t o ro ad links acco rdingly. The mo dule will allo w fo r ent ry and repo rt ing o f bo t h mo t o rised and no n-mo t o rised t raffic. v. The Road mentor system is now fully operational in the Central Zone and preparations are underway to extrapolate the system to other three remaining zones namely Coast, Southern highlands and Lake zones. Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 13 30 Sep 02 5 REFERENCES 1. Katala, J and Toole, T. 2000. Road management systems – The development of the Road Mentor System in Tanzania. Proceedings of Tanzanian Annual Roads Convention 2000. 2. Tanroads, 2002. Data Collection manual, Version 4.2.0. Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 14 30 Sep 02 Appendix A Examples of Road Mentor Reports No.1 - Ordnance No.3 - Inventory Summary No.8 - Paved roads Roughness (Central Zone) No.10 - Graph of Unpaved Roads Condition Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 15 30 Sep 02 Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 16 30 Sep 02 Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 17 30 Sep 02 Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 18 30 Sep 02 Annual Roads Convention 2002 PA3899-02.doc 19 30 Sep 02