Performance Measures for Highway Road Networks – TAC

When the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) retained Stantec to conduct a study that would develop performance measure guidelines for their rural road networks, their goal was threefold—to assist agencies in making informed asset management decisions, provide a way to communicate road network performance to the public, and allow agencies to compare the performance of their networks with other agencies. Our team did just that, with a focus on system preservation and safety. 

Our thorough review of the existing practices within Canada and other countries led us to recommend a multi-tier performance measure framework that included the International Roughness Index, the Structural Adequacy Index, collision/fatality rate, and highway geometric performance measures, among others. All combined, this framework would help maintain the road networks and protect the welfare of the traveling public. 

Threshold values were created for these measures so that the performance of the road network systems could be compared across agencies, and annual fatality and collision rates could be classified as at, above, or below average. They were then presented to the public to illustrate how they could improve Canada’s infrastructure.