Analysing the conditions of road assets with a network thinking

Abstract: The existing road maintenance often treats defects as isolated entities with fragmented documentation. Most of the previous research tended to focus on limited types of road assets. This research explores relationships across different types of road assets, summarized into 66 assets, 48 defects, 28 repairs, 27 causes and 39 preventative treatments. Class-to-class relationships in the network of road asset conditions are learned from British codes of practice and abroad. The network merges segregated road asset failures into a comprehensive network, which contributes to laying the ground rules for automating road maintenance and facilitating risk and reliability analyses for asset management.