How to preserve and improve safety with tight maintenance budgets

While there has always been a need to ensure road maintenance funds are spent wisely, funding reductions have moved the industry from an loptimum whole of life outcomesr focus, to one that focuses more on meeting short term budget constraints. This has prompted a number of road network managers to propose making cuts to safety related infrastructure standards. This paper looks at a number of safety related infrastructure items the various networks have suggested could be dropped or scaled back. The paper then looks at the role these items play in terms of user safety and warns about the need to understand the context of crash reduction research when identifying the crash implications. We then look at the cost savings that might typically be derived from no longer maintaining these items. Finally the paper proposes a methodology that could be used to prioritise the various items. Although the paper focuses on state highways, the proposed prioritisation could be used by other road controlling authorities.