In 1994 VicRoads adopted its “A Stitch in Time” pavement strategy. The essential elements of the strategy were to carry out:
• Routine maintenance (day-to-day maintenance) where the strategic aim was to minimise the deterioration of the pavement and provide safe and acceptable road conditions at least overall cost to the community.
• Periodic maintenance (cyclically planned maintenance) where the strategic aim was to provide a safe riding surface, and reduce the need for more expensive rehabilitation or excessive routine maintenance by
waterproofing the pavement.
• Rehabilitation Maintenance to progressively achieve road conditions that meet the standards in the “A Stitch in Time” strategy, by using the most cost-effective treatments in terms of life-cycle costs.
These components were strongly targeted and helped change the culture of VicRoads by recognising essential works and providing the direction for maintenance works. VicRoads still uses the “A Stitch in Time” policy for road maintenance however continual review of what was being achieved, and what could be done better; has resulted in the changes and a better understanding of our network.
This paper discusses the:
• Original development of “A Stitch in Time”
• The guidelines for works which stand behind the “A Stitch in Time” policy,
• Some of the investigations that reviewed what “A Stitch in Time” was achieving, its successes and issues still facing the policy.
• Existing and new performance indicators of the condition of the VicRoads network.VicRoads is the State Road Authority that manages approximately 23,000 carriageway kilometres (14,400 mile) of arterial roads of the 130,000 kilometre (81,000 mile) network in Victoria, Australia. It manages two types of network, an asphalt (bituminous concrete) surfaced network comprising approximately 25% of the
network and a sprayed seal (chip seal) network comprising approximately 75% of the network.