At the same time there is a constant pressure to cut back on available resources due to competition with many other sectors of the society for funds

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1 Neither our road network, traffic, nor demands from the community for accessibility, safety and concern for the environment, are fixed and unchangeable. The scope of our road network is growing and equipment is becoming all the more sophisticated. The volume of traffic is on the rise, likewise the weight of transports. Demands from society are growing as traffic dependency, respect for human life, and environmental awareness increase. These increasing demands lead to higher and higher operational and maintenance costs. Such increasing demands are attributed to changes in the road network affected by new construction and improvement, growth in traffic, increasing environmental requirements (such as noise insulation) and added safety requirements in conjunction with roadwork. These demands are associated with gradual cost increases of approximately SEK 150 million (total grant of approx. SEK 8,000/year). These gradually increasing costs will be offset, however, by achieving a gradual savings, i.e., rationalizing at a rate of 2 percent each year. Rationalization is estimated to render a net effect of unchanged costs, based upon fixed prices, by an equivalent lowering of costs. Demands on operation and maintenance are thus altered over time, and we are in the process of developing and concretizing standard requirements in dialogue with various customer groups. The results of this dialogue will be expressed in terms of functional requirements, i.e., requirements on the functionality of the road network from a customer perspective. Technical requirements that secure the durability of our roads from a customer perspective will be added. These demands can be said to represent the requirements of future customers. In summary, demands on the quality of our road transport system are always increasing. At the same time there is a constant pressure to cut back on available resources due to competition with many other sectors of the society for funds. Today s stakeholders also demand transparency in order to be able to check the experts.

2 In developed countries the road network is usually well developed. The focus in these countries is shifting from new roads (which are still very popular with the politicians) to maintenance and operation of existing roads. Significant and constant improvement in the effectiveness of maintenance and operation is the only way to cope with increasing demand. In Sweden, the decision has been taken and the process started to mobilize our own and international knowledge and experience to achieve our goal to become one of the global leaders of this trend. Given the above-mentioned, we find the most important challenges that we face are associated with the following basic factors: A. How have our customers experienced our services (deliveries)? B. What have we provided to our customers and what is the short and long-term value of this to our society? C. How efficient have we been in rendering these services (deliveries)? This is a slight simplification of a model used in Holland. In Sweden we can see that we have a major problem in trying to figure out why there is such a large discrepancy between the perceived customer benefit and the real benefit to society. The latter is based upon a calculation of benefits that have been scientifically developed and based upon road conditions and effects, such as the cost of vehicles and travel time. We have identified a large number of activities or challenges associated with these basic factors that must be faced. This presentation explains these challenges and how they are to be met. A. How have our customers experienced our services (deliveries)? There is a need for enhanced information, dialogue and communication with different stakeholder groups; this need includes a continuous adjustment of standards to meet stakeholders demands. What are customer expectations? The Swedish Road Administration must explain to customers what we can provide and the basis for our decisions regarding the level of maintenance and operations that we offer. New and higher standard requirements have been identified primarily in our winter operations. A higher standard of winter operations is required to fulfill increasing demands for regularity, safety and reliability. A higher standard during the winter is also required on roads that are especially important for commuter traffic. These demands are also applicable to roads to winter sports centers at least during the peak seasons. Winter operations also need to be better at accommodating persons with disabilities and unprotected road users. These requirements will be stated in the new long-term plan that is being drafted for the period

3 It is also important to develop cooperation with our contractors, since they are our extended arm to road users. Both the Swedish Road Administration and our contractors must therefore have a joint dialogue with professional and private road users. In addition, we must take climate changes into consideration along with an increasing frequency of weather extremes. Unstable weather conditions during recent years, involving extremes in precipitation, floods, storms, and landslides, have been associated with additional cost. Work is underway to systematically describe for our customers the standard delivery quality of our road connections and the safety margins for these deliveries. By describing the function of connections (links) we are also setting our target levels regarding risk- reducing measures (maintenance,

4 improvements or emergency measures) as well as standards for the extent to which planned maintenance work will be allowed to disturb traffic, detours etc. This descriptive system will enable us to communicate what can be expected from the Swedish Road Administration with our principals and customers. Improved environmental behavior. Apart from presenting an action plan for improved environmental consideration in our maintenance and operations work, we will also develop processes that make our work increasingly energy efficient. B. What have we provided to our customers and what is the real short and longterm benefit of this to our society? A Road Asset Management approach based on a holistic view to steadily improve external and internal effectiveness is required. A revision of documents and IT systems serving maintenance and operations is needed as well. C. How efficient have we been in providing these services (deliveries) to our customers? An important success factor in this context is to secure long-term internal and external competence development. This is particularly important given the major generation shift that we soon face. At the same time we must make an effort to see to it that the work that we offer is perceived as interesting. Interest in the road construction sector has not been especially great among young people and recent school graduates.

5 As was mentioned in the introduction, competition for public funding will be sharpened among various public sectors. This means that measures taken to operate and maintain roads must be done in the most efficient possible way. To this end we must develop and set a number of key performance indicators that enable us to demonstrate the effectiveness of allotted funds. These key performance indicators should also help to enable regular benchmarking among the seven regions of our road administration. The efforts that have been initiated in recent years in operational development will continue full speed ahead. It is especially important to develop routines for quickly implementing newly acquired knowledge into operations. But efforts to obtain new knowledge will not, of course, be limited to our home ground. We must actively participate in and learn from global developments as well.

6 Contractor deliveries must be systematically and comprehensively controlled. Has the buyer received what was ordered? Demands are being made in several areas to account for the operational standards that we have achieved in reality. To begin with, these demands are expressed by our principal, i.e., the Swedish government/parliament. Another important activity is to develop a methodology that secures that customers and our society at large have roads that fulfill functional safety requirements throughout the duration of their operation and at the lowest possible public cost. In order to achieve this, operational and maintenance issues must be taken into consideration in the early phases of road planning.

7 By systematically meeting the identified challenges described above, we believe that we can achieve the following objectives of our sector: To be able to establish optimal standard levels for operation and maintenance within our allotted economic framework. To improve outer (directly related to customer service) efficiency as a consequence of the afore-mentioned objective. To provide greater customer benefit, and thus obtain more satisfied customers. To increase productivity within our sector by a minimum of 2 % per year. To secure the long-term supply of competence within our sector. To mobilize our own resources, international knowledge and experience to achieve the goal to become one of the global leaders in the field of road maintenance and operations.