Austroads harmonises road asset data

Austroads has published the second version of the Data Standard for Road Management and Investment, following calls for common data definitions and formats for road agencies in Australia and New Zealand.

According to Austroads, the Data Standard will cater for different levels of road asset complexity and planning to ensure it can be used by all road managers – from small local councils to large state and federal agencies – and interface with existing data collection, finance, risk and information systems.

The use of consistent road asset data is expected to: create opportunities for road managers to share and compare information; improve strategic decision making and planning; and make design, construction, maintenance, and operation of load networks more productive.

Version 2 of the Data Standard includes additional function groups of data and identifies two initial Priority Harmonisation Subsets (PHS): Network and Management.

Network: A list of network reporting measures that provide the basis for comparing road networks in terms of scope, use, demand, condition and financial properties. These network measures have been identified by industry as priority measures that provide a consistent and accurate means for both comparative assessment and performance monitoring.

Management: A list of data items that represent the minimum data set for effective asset and maintenance management. The Standard recommends that road agencies adopt this management set of data items as a priority for implementation.

Austroads said that additional categories will be developed in the future.

The priority subsets will be trialled in a series of pilots with road managers across Australia and New Zealand. The pilots will inform the development of the subsets and the Standard, and explore ways harmonised data can be used to promote collaboration and comparisons.

Version 3 of the Standard is now under development. The work will focus on aligning and comparing road classifications, road conditions and a range of other data groups. It will also include an updated PHS that will be used for implementation actions. The draft documents will be released for consultation later in the year.