Factors affecting operation and maintenance cost budget in highway projects

Road maintenance are complex systems, and therefore truly understanding their budget is difficult. The high cost of operation and maintenance is a real problem and a major issue in highway projects, and it constitutes a significant part of the total life cycle cost. This study intends to examine the factors attributed to increased operation and maintenance cost and the highway components’ difficulty level of operating and maintaining. A literature analysis identified 22 factors responsible for increasing operation and maintenance costs and 23 highway components that are hard to operate and maintain at the post-construction phase. That analysis was followed by a questionnaire survey, and 70 respondents graded the identified factors using a five-point Likert scale during an online survey. The mean and relative importance index (RII) of the factors and highway components were determined, followed by rank analysis. This study demonstrates that poor road design, lack of maintenance plan, high maintenance cost due to lower maintenance quality, poor construction quality, and risk of corruption significantly affect the operation and maintenance cost budget. Among highway components, pavement markings, above the ground bridge (road bridge, pedestrian/ motorcycle bridge), electrical devices, traffic calming devices, traffic and above ground services were rated as the most difficult to operate and maintain. Finally, the relationships between the factors affecting operation and maintenance cost and the highway components were identified using correlation tests. This study provides insight into the major factors of operation and maintenance cost budget and difficulty level of highway components for maintenance.