The management of road infrastructure has been experiencing major changes over the past decade, mostly due to the increased demand from road users, the increased deterioration of road infrastructure and from the evolution of user expectations. In addition, new challenges such as climate change and emerging (and potentially disruptive) technologies and service models are changing supply and demand dimensions as well as offering data collection and analytics capability in their own right. This has led to a need for the use of emerging state-of-the-art technologies to collect and process relevant data in order to facilitate the maintenance and management of the road network while providing smooth and stress-free journeys to road users.

Research undertaken by Atkins under PIARC supervision has confirmed that the pressures on road administrations in terms of increasing demand and expectations continue to grow, and current international disruption following the emergence of Covid-19 means that there are likely to be more challenges to deal with in the short-to-medium term. It was clear from the findings that there is great interest and appetite in the potential for data to help with this, and there are already excellent examples of global good practice.

20 recommendations, referenced within the report, provide a clear framework for road administrations to systematically compare their current practices and develop tailored action plans. These also complemented by a further 4 recommendations for PIARC to consider, to supporting member organisations in their journey to deliver better services through smarter use of data.