John Widdup was the pavement maintenance and rehabilitation specialist responsible for establishing and implementing routine and periodic maintenance management systems and programs for the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. He has over 30 years' experience in most aspects of road and airfield pavements and related items covering investigations, feasibility studies, economic analysis, technical analysis, design, materials, testing, construction, operation and maintenance. Over recent years, John undertook projects relating to upkeep and maintenance options, programs and management in Australia, Malaysia, Yemen, UAE, Malawi and the Philippines. He was responsible for developing much of the SMEC Pavement Management System, based on the World Bank HDM III model.

Cesar Adamos, is the head of the Public Works and Technical Services Group in SBMA, overseeing the planning, implementation and maintenance of infrastructure projects, utility services and other facilities. He is a member of the Pre-Bid Awards Committee (PBAC) and Pre-Evaluation Awards Committee (PEAC) that are strictly enforcing government rules in bidding and awarding infrastructure projects. He provides professional assistance to various World Bank funded projects. Cesar has more than 15 years experience in civil and structural works and infrastructure projects in the former U.S. Navy Public Works Center, Subic Bay and in Saudi Arabia. He was previously the Senior Structural Engineer in a large engineering firm in Metro Manila.

Marcelino Sanqui manages the Engineering Department of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. He is responsible for the implementation of planning, development and maintenance of the infrastructure facilities in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone and he oversaw the establishment and introduction of the roads and bridges maintenance management system and programs. Marcelino has over 20 years experience in structural and civil works. Prior to his present position he served as Supervisory Structural Engineer and Head of the Material Testing Branch of the former U.S. Navy Public Works Center in Subic Bay. He also worked as a World Bank Consultant in the preparation of the master plan for the conversion of the former US Navy Base, upon its turn-over to the Philippine Government into a Freeport Zone.

The authors thank the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) for permission to present this paper. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the SBMA or SMEC.

1. INTRODUCTION

 

The Subic Bay Freeport Zone is located in north west Luzon Island in the Philippines in the tropics where heavy rain totalling between 2.5 m and 4.5 m falls each year (Figure 1). The Freeport is based on the land and infrastructure facilities vacated by the US Navy in 1992. It is an important centre for industrial activity, manufacturing, importing and exporting by sea and air, tourism and recreation. The Freeport is operated and managed by the Subic Bay Municipal Authority (SBMA), a body established by the Government of the Philippines.

 

The road and bridge assets within the Freeport Zone currently comprise some 200 km of road, 16 substantial bridges, over 1,300 culverts and the associated structures, drainage facilities, signs and road furniture. Their replacement cost is approaching some $US200 million. Most of these items were constructed by and for the US Navy but a substantial number were constructed after the Freeport commenced. Additional facilities are currently under construction with more are expected in the near future.

 

With the change in land and facility usage from the US Navy to the Freeport, there have been significant changes in the usage, traffic and loadings on many facilities. Consequently, some items require extensive maintenance and upgrading to accommodate conditions for which they were not designed.

 

Initially, SBMA was financially constrained in its ability to undertake comprehensive maintenance of the road and bridge infrastructure resulting in some accelerated deterioration. However, SBMA recognised the strategic importance of the infrastructure and its value to the Freeport, the hinterland and the nation. Consequently, they enlisted the help of the World Bank to obtain a sound systematic method for road and bridge maintenance and upkeep. Under World Bank funding, a roads and bridges maintenance management system suitable for SBMA, was developed, introduced and established and is now being used by SBMA.

 

2. MANAGEMENT OF THE ROAD AND BRIDGE MAINTENANCE TASK

The road and bridge assets managed by SBMA includes:

• pavements, shoulders and verges on roads, parking areas, hard stands and helipads; traffic islands, medians;

• curbs, gutters and similar roadway items; culverts, floodways, bridges, lined and unlined drains, streams, drainage inlets and pits and other drainage items;

• roadside furniture including guard fences, pedestrian control fences, road signs; and

• roadside vegetation.

The SBMA objective for the road and bridge asset maintenance function was established as "asset and safety preservation by intervention and preventative actions, arresting deterioration, minor repairs and other minor works". This required a management and procurement system, knowledge of the extent and location of all road and bridge assets, policy for deciding when intervention should be undertaken and systems for discovering defects requiring intervention and the undertaking of repairs. The way these were established for the Subic Bay road network within the maintenance management section is illustrated in Figure 2 and is discussed in this paper.

There are a number of different ways the management of roadway maintenance can be established. For SBMA this was established as an owner/purchaser and provider model that includes:

• A small roads and bridges maintenance management section comprising four engineers acting as the owner/purchaser. They are responsible for monitoring the condition of the road network, discovering defects, determining appropriate repairs, ordering repairs, controlling the budget and managing the process. They have no capacity to undertake repair work.

• In-house direct labour workforce and external contractors undertaking the repair work under instruction from the road and bridge maintenance management section. The in-house workforce is quite separate from the maintenance management section and is treated in a similar way to external contractors via works orders. The external contractors are employed under period schedule of rates contracts or contracts for specific repairs.

This separation of the maintenance requirement and action decision process from the undertaking of the work has a number of advantages including:

• the maintenance management section can concentrate on how best to maintain the road free from pressures to keep a workforce employed;

• the most appropriate treatment can be selected and specified - provided there is adequate budget and a contractor who can do the work; and

• the in-house workforce is given clear instructions for each repair and is required to perform accordingly.

2. Extent and Location of Assets

The initial phase of establishing the maintenance management system was to locate each asset and determining its attributes such as: type, dimensions, materials, age and condition. These data were entered into the MMS database and a geographical information system (GIS) developed in MapInfo. The MMS database stores the attributes and has management and reporting modules. The GIS maps contain separate graphical objects for each infrastructure item linked to the corresponding data in the MMS database. In this way, information, reports and thematic maps are produced in the GIS using the database information. Separate data sets and map layers were used to separate the infrastructure features such as roads (including carparks, hardstands and heliports), culverts, bridges, road signs, curbs and gutters, drainage inlets and guardrails. Additional data sets and map layers can be added as and when desired.

The road and bridge asset maintenance objectives require intervention and preventative actions to repair defects at an optimum time to arrest deterioration and so preserve the asset and safety. Table 1 gives some examples of the routine maintenance intervention criteria developed for SBMA. These intervention criteria were set based on asset preservation (intervention to prevent further deterioration) and safety (intervention to remove a hazard or potential hazard). They were developed from criteria used by other authorities, engineering experience and judgment and were determined in collaboration with SBMA engineering and maintenance staff. They can be easily changed without affecting the system if other criteria are found more appropriate. For the SBMA system, the steps involved in developing the intervention criteria were:

• All defect types for each asset type were identified and given a standard name (and number); eg, pothole, rough surface, debris in culvert and sidewalk fault.

• The severity of each defect requiring a treatment was determined based on asset preservation, operational and safety considerations; eg, pavement surface depressions ponding water over 20 mm deep (a safety hazard) and debris in drains blocking more than 10% of the waterway (operational and asset preservation considerations). Note that defects with a severity less than that identified as requiring intervention do not require any treatment.

• The time in which the defect should be fixed was determined based on asset preservation and safety considerations; eg, hazards to be fixed as soon as practicable, others may be delayed, and all defects requiring treatments to be fixed within three months.

• The repair options for each defect were identified and detailed in job instructions that describe the treatment and its purpose, give an outline specification and detail the materials to be used.

The adoption of the intervention criteria sets the rules that the maintenance managers are to follow; that is, they have to repair defects in accordance with the criteria or be in "non-conformance" with the requirements. Figure 3 illustrates this process.

The intervention criteria dictate the resources required (financial, materials and repair capacity) to ensure the criteria are met at all times. The required routine maintenance budget is a function of the intervention criteria, the asset condition and the expected deterioration. If the required budget cannot be afforded, then the intervention criteria should be altered and the consequences recognised in the appropriate management areas. The likely consequences of non-conformances are:

• more rapid deterioration of the asset, higher maintenance and intervention costs and higher road user costs; and

• increased hazards within the road and bridge network resulting in more and/or more severe vehicle crashes and higher road user costs.

For the Subic Bay road and bridge network, the intervention criteria were set on the basis of asset preservation (intervention to prevent further deterioration) and safety (intervention to remove a hazard or potential hazard). However, initially this resulted in the "need" for a lot of routine maintenance to fix defects that could not be undertaken due to a lack of resources (financial, materials and capacity). This was recognised and, rather than reduce the intervention criteria, steps were taken to address the "needs" as follows:

• The repairs required were prioritised based on asset preservation and hazards to road users.

• Drainage repair was given a high priority as, with the intense rainfall, blocked or damaged drains could quickly result in extensive damage to the road assets and hazardous situations. Additionally, the Authority had the in-house capacity (personnel, equipment and money for materials) to undertake this work.

• Pavement failures were repaired where they constituted a hazard or were likely to lead to further failure. This work was done under an existing period contract.

• Major defects in other assets, that constituted a hazard or could lead to major asset damage, were considered on an individual basis and some repairs were undertaken.

• All other defect repairs were deferred pending a World Bank maintenance and rehabilitation contract being concurrently developed and awarded. However, the defects were identified and recorded to allow monitoring and to ensure they were not forgotten.

• When the maintenance and rehabilitation contract was awarded (some six months after the adoption of the intervention criteria) the road and bridge network was brought to a "defect free state".

• Thereafter, the intervention criteria were used in the management of routine maintenance.

1. DEFECT AND CONDITION DISCOVERY SYSTEMS

Once the defects requiring intervention were determined, it was necessary to discover all such defects as early as practicable. A defect discovery system was established to locate defects requiring intervention as early as practicable and necessary. It comprised three sub-systems: formal defect discovery inspections; informal inspections; and response to public complaints and requests for work. In addition to the defect discovery, overall condition surveys are undertaken at regular intervals as part of budget preparation and asset condition reporting.

Road and bridge maintenance section staff undertake formal defect discovery inspections of the road and bridge assets at regular intervals as outlined in Table 2. Roadways inspections include parking areas, hardstands, shoulders, verges, lines and signs, roadside furniture, drains and verges. The other inspections involve close and detailed inspections of bridges, culverts and drainage facilities, sidewalks, nightime conspicuousness and hazards, wet weather conditions and hazardous locations. Separate formal inspection procedures were developed and instigated for each inspection type. Each inspection only reports defects requiring intervention - if the severity of the defect is below the intervention requirement, it is not reported.

Each inspection is based on formal instructions and checklists with recording forms using paper. These were developed to allow easy conversion to electronic data collection at a later date. The inventory records (database and GIS) are used to produce inspection forms and to ensure all assets are inspected. The maintenance management database tracks when inspections are required, when inspections are undertaken, when inspections are past due (via alert reports) and the occurrence of defects and repairs undertaken.

3.2 Informal Inspections

The informal inspection system established comprises a formal method for SBMA staff (that includes the roads and bridges maintenance management staff) to report defects as and when they are discovered. It is designed to be simple and easy to use to encourage reporting of all defects discovered in a standard way. To date it has proved quite effective. The system comprises:

• an instruction to staff that they should observe and report all defects, deficiencies and hazards to the roads and bridges maintenance sections;

• a simple standard reporting form for describing the location, extent and severity of the defect;

• a listing of defects and severity ratings (printed on the back of the reporting form); and

• a report handling and response procedure in the maintenance management section.

When the roads and bridges maintenance management section receives reports they are assessed to determine whether the defect requires intervention. For interventions, they are handled in the same way as other defects discovered and the reporter is advised of the outcome. The maintenance management database system has a tracking module for all informal reports, actions and outcomes.

2. Response To Public Complaints and Requests for Work

Reports and complaints about roadway and bridge defects, desired changes and improvements are received from staff of the Authority, police, road users, local land users, local representatives and the public in general. They are an important, and sometimes very effective, source of information particularly about hazardous events such as landslides and floods. The formal system established for handling such reports comprises:

• a telephone "hot line" that is also used for other infrastructure complaints and requests providing one point of telephone access into the system;

• a simple recording form for use by the "hot line" operator, and others receiving oral or written complaints and requests, that prompts the appropriate questions to ensure sufficient detail is recorded;

• a mechanism for delivery and handling of the complaint and request forms within the roads and bridges maintenance management section that is basically the same as that used for informal reports; and

• a follow up system to inform the complainant or reporter of the intended action and the outcome together with an alert system reminding staff if the follow up is not done.

2. Condition Surveys

Roadway condition surveys record all conditions, not just defects. They are designed to enable overall conditions to be assessed and as input to periodic maintenance decisions, such as choosing between a pavement being resurfaced and routine maintenance repairs continuing. The other important uses of condition reports are: (a) assessing the desirability of undertaking periodic maintenance; and (b) reviewing the budget required for routine and periodic maintenance. These issues are interrelated as undertaking periodic maintenance on a section of road should reduce the amount of routine maintenance required; eg, pavement surface patching and crack sealing should be reduced for some years after pavement resurfacing.

For pavements, the key condition items included in the condition assessment are ride quality (roughness) ruts, cracks, potholes, pavement failures, edge drop off and shoulder condition. This is done on a section by section basis. Riding in a vehicle over the road is used to assess the roughness and the other items are assessed visually. From these data, the pavement condition index (PCI) is determined by the database system to give a measure of the overall health of each road section, group of roads and the road network.

Once a defect requiring intervention is discovered, the road and bridge maintenance management section is required to instigate an appropriate repair to be completed within the specified time (refer to Table 1). This may be a simple task such as clearing a drain or may require investigations and design of a pavement structural repair (as detailed in the routine maintenance management system documentation). Decisions on the appropriate procurement method (in-house, period contract or new contract) is outside the system and depends on current workloads, capabilities, capacities and what contracts are in place. However, regardless of the procurement method, the work must be done in accordance with the design and specification. The maintenance management section staff inspect and audit the work and if satisfactory, sign it off. The completion is recorded in the database and the works order status changes from open to closed.

Work orders generated in the database system are used to define, instruct, track and finalise repairs as illustrated in Figure 4. The works orders are tracked in the system and at any time the outstanding and completed orders can be identified and, more importantly, the alert system highlights those orders past due.

The agreed intervention criteria, in conjunction with the periodic maintenance works, determine the amount of routine maintenance and thus the budget required. The road and bridge routine maintenance budget requirement is prepared using a standard format developed to cover each roadway element and all types of repairs. Figure 5 (on the next page) illustrates the format showing, for one asset type, the expected quantity and rate giving the amount of money required for that type of repair. The amounts are totalled to give the required budget. In order to assess the amount of each repair required, account is taken of the amount of repair in the previous and current years (available from the database), non-conformances under previous budgets, the current condition, changes in conditions expected and the expected periodic maintenance to be undertaken.

In the budget development process there is often some negotiations. If these indicate that the routine maintenance budget required to meet the intervention criteria is unlikely to be forthcoming then other improvement works should be delayed. Usually routine maintenance is best value for money. If delays in routine maintenance occur, the long-term maintenance and upkeep costs, to preserve the asset and eliminate hazards, will significantly increase. If ultimately, the required routine budget cannot be obtained, then senior management should be informed of the consequences both in the terms of the inability to satisfy the agreed intervention criteria and the results of using alternative intervention criteria that can be accommodated in the proposed budget.

A straightforward and appropriate road and bridge routine maintenance management system was developed and implemented for the Subic Bay Freeport Zone road and bridge network. It is based on an owner/purchaser and provider model with as minimal management team acting as the owner’s representative and purchaser. The providers are an in-house work force, completely separate from the management team, and external contractors. Intervention criteria were developed to ensure the appropriate asset preservation and hazard prevention. However, financial and other constraints initially prevented these being implemented. Where these could not initially be achieved, a staged development was adopted. This staged implementation enabled the most appropriate goals to be identified and ultimately achieved - over a longer period than would have occurred if adequate resources were available at the beginning. The system is based on a comprehensive database with screen forms connected to a GIS. It includes defect discovery, works order, procurement, costing, past due alert, reporting, analysis and other sub-systems. The routine maintenance management system is simple yet effective and is currently being used successfully used in routine maintenance management. It can easily be modified to accommodate changing requirements and circumstances.

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority in the Philippines is responsible for the management and operation of a Freeport zone based on the extensive Subic Bay Naval Base infrastructure left after the US Navy vacated in 1992. This includes over 200 km of roads, associated bridges, culverts, drainage, signage, guard fences and related items in various ages and conditions. The Freeport is now an important centre for industrial activities, importing and exporting (sea and air) and recreation. A good road network plays a vital role in the success of the Freeport. The Authority, recognising this, undertook (in conjunction with the World Bank) the development of a suitable and appropriate road and bridge maintenance management system.

The system was required to address the pavements, structures, drainage and road furniture in severe and changing circumstances. Many of the pavements and structures are old and there have been significant changes in the traffic patterns and loadings since the US Navy left. Subic Bay is in a tropical environmental with some 2.5 m to 4.5 m of rain each year (over about five months).

A maintenance management system was established and is being used by the Authority to successfully manage the maintenance function in a thorough and systematic manner. The system was established and introduced to suit and augment the local requirements and capabilities. It uses powerful computer software that assists management, via screen forms and a comprehensive database connected to an effective GIS established in MapInfo. The system is simple yet has comprehensive record keeping, alert systems, data analysis and reporting (via tables and maps). It is being used and is benefiting the Authority, businesses in the Freeport zone, visitors and the general public. However, certain shortcomings in the Authority’s administrative arrangements were recognised as impeding full development of the system. These shortcomings were identified and are receiving attention.

A Maintenance Management Section was established with minimal staff (four engineers) to manage the road and bridge maintenance function. The Section is responsible for, amongst other things: maintaining an asset register with full details; discovering distress and defects (including managing a telephone "hot line" for the general public); determining and designing appropriate repairs (in accordance with development intervention requirements); specifying, detailing and organising repairs undertaken by in-house workforce and contractors; proposing and managing periodic maintenance; developing budget requirements and related activities.

Useful pointers can be obtained from considering the development and introduction of the maintenance management system into a new authority that took over an existing road network, subject to changing traffic loadings. Of particular importance are the trials and adjustments required to ensure that the system was suitable for local maintenance requirements, capabilities of staff and contractors, budget limitations and local administrative requirements and constraints.