Valuation of low volume roads in Spain. Part 1: Methodology development

In rural societies, low volume roads play important social and economic roles. Nevertheless, as yet few developed countries, and practically no developing countries, have programmes for maintaining them. Disrepair is therefore a frequent situation. In Spain, the absence of technical procedures for their inspection and assessment hinders the development of objective criteria that could be included in maintenance and management plans. Therefore, it is the aim of this paper to propose a methodology in order to gather essential information on rural roads in a cheap and systematic manner. In this way both the assessment of their condition and the taking of decisions on repairs can be facilitated. The information that should be gathered with this methodology was included in three different manuals: the first one was for operating procedures, the second one for the descriptive profiles, and the last one for distresses. The proposed method was validated by using it to assess the status of 41 low volume roads in different parts of Spain.