Rios Garcia, Cristhian C. (2023) Low Volume Road Development and Management: A review of current best practices adopted by local governments with a focus on rural areas of Australia. [USQ Project]
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Abstract
Low volume roads (LVRs) make up to two thirds of all the roads worldwide or approximately 30 million kilometres, particularly in Australia. Australia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world where more than 60% of its population is concentrated in the major cities located near the ocean and rely on the large network of low-volume roads as the vital link to meet the daily social and economic needs.
This project presents a review of the current best practices and management strategies used for LVRs. The focus of this report is to investigate how the rural areas of Australia implement these strategies. LVRs are generally managed by local road authorities. Various published literature has identified that amongst the challenges faced by these local road authorities, the lack of funding and availability of technical and human resources to suitably manage and conduct maintenance in low-volume road are the most significant. Thus, this research project provides an insight of the current management strategies being implemented by local authorities. Similarly, this project conducted an analysis of the most suitable maintenance prioritisation strategies currently used. The methodology for the completion of this included an in-depth literature review of the various low-volume road management strategies, a case study conducted on the City of Greater Geraldton located 420 km North of Perth in the Mid-West Reion of Western Australia. The Case Study identified the current strategies for road management and discussed opportunities for improvement. Finally, a Survey aimed at Local Government agencies in Western Australia was developed to collect information regarding their approach to low-volume road management.
The project findings hold significant implications for policymaking and resource allocation in the area of road management, particularly in remote areas. The project also highlighted the need for additional financial support, training, and the adoption of sustainable practices that local government agencies have to effectively address those challenges identified in the development and management of Low-Volume Roads.
During the completion of this project, it was identified that using a survey as a method to capture information form external government agencies posed a challenge to the researchers. The survey participation rate was significantly low. And whilst various factors played a role in this, it was identified that the survey could have been optimized to contain less questions and require less details in the answers. It is recommended that future research on this topic takes into account the lessons learned from this project.
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| Item Type: | USQ Project |
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| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Current – Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Engineering (1 Jan 2022 -) |
| Supervisors: | Thorpe, David |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) (Civil) |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Oct 2025 22:05 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Oct 2025 22:05 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Low volume roads (LVRs); Australia |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52997 |
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