Abstract:
The road network in Pakistan serves as a lifeline for the national economy. The road share of freight transport is estimated at 90 percent (%) while that of railways and air is 8 % and 2 % respectively. The total length of road network is 258,000 kilometers (km) consisting of 150,000 km of paved roads (high type) and 100,000 km of gravel (low type) roads. The length of National Highways is only 3.5 % of the entire road network; however, by virtue of its layout it carries the ever increasing 80% of country’s traffic.
The excessive use of road network in comparison to other transportation facilities is the key factor in rapid road deterioration in Pakistan which results in failure of highways much before the expected service life. Major share of the revenue is therefore being utilized on repair, maintenance and rehabilitation of highway network. Pavement condition survey conducted by NHA in year 2004 has shown that 50% of existing NHA network is in need of the major rehabilitation or reconstruction. The remaining 50% will loose its serviceability in near future if timely and effective maintenance and rehabilitation measures are not adopted.
The available revenue has not so far been able to fully meet the repair / maintenance / rehabilitation needs of national highway network. Financial constraints and tremendous amount of repair / rehabilitation works required, warrant optimization of funding requirement and network performance trend using an efficient tool like HDM-4. The data on the subject available with NHA can be used as input to the futuristic system like HDM-4 for the meaningful implementation at strategy level. This research will be a step forward to the need of the time.
