MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT OF FEDERAL ROADS

IN THE STATE OF SELANGOR, MALAYSIA

Ir. Lai Khin Onn, Public Works Department of Malaysia, China

ABSTRACT
In early 2001, the Government of Malaysia privatized the road maintenance operations for the
11,600 kms of paved Federal roads in Peninsular Malaysia. The concession period is 15 years
with an allowance for a comprehensive review to be carried out every 5 years. The maintenance
operations privatized are the routine, periodic and emergency works. Routine maintenance is
carried out at specified intervention levels or at specified cycles and paid on the basis of lump
sum scheduled payment for each month in the contract period. Periodic and emergency works
are carried out through work orders and paid using a schedule of rates.

All maintenance work on the privatized Federal road network is managed by the Public Works
Department of Malaysia (JKR), which has 8 regional offices situated thoughout Peninsular
Malaysia. A typical regional office is the Selangor Road Maintenance Management Unit who
manages the maintenance of the approximately 600 kilometres of the Federal roads in the State
of Selangor.

This paper presents, for the typical Selangor Federal road sub-network, the:
• Scope of maintenance activities involved in the privatization contract,
• Funding requirements and priorities,
• Asset management systems used, data collection and how they support decision making, and
• Performance of the road asset after privatization.

Highlighted are the issues and problems encountered during this early period of privatization
after decades of doing road maintenance the conventional way. Recommendations are also made
on tackling these issues.

INTRODUCTION
Malaysia today has about 68,000 kms of road, of which 77 percent is paved (JKR ROADS
BRANCH, 2001). This road network can broadly be categorized into the Federal and State
roads. Federal roads consist of mainly non-tolled inter-state primary roads, as well as tolled
roads and some secondary roads in Federal land schemes. All other roads are State roads.

Every year, the Public Works Department of Malaysia (JKR) devotes considerable resources
towards the routine and periodic maintenance of its stock of Federal and State roads. The
purpose of maintaining the existing road is to enable its continued use by traffic in an efficient
and safe manner. The portion of the whole road network, which is maintained by JKR, consists
of about 15,500 kms of Federal roads and about 36,500 kms of State roads.

In the middle of February 2001, the Government of Malaysia privatized the road maintenance
operations for the approximately 11,600 kms of paved Federal roads in Peninsular Malaysia.
Three concession companies were selected to undertake the works with each company allocated
its respective northern, central-eastern or southern zone. The concession period is for 15 years
with an allowance for a comprehensive review to be carried out every 5 years. The maintenance
operations privatized are the:
• Routine maintenance,
• Periodic maintenance,

1
• Emergency works, and
• All other activities incidental to the performance of the works.

Routine maintenance consists of 8 activities of which 2 activities are carried out at specified
intervention levels while the other 6 activities are carried out at specified cycles. Payment for
routine maintenance is on the basis of lump sum scheduled payment for each month in the
contract period.

Periodic works consist of pavement preventive and strengthening works, and the repair of road
furniture. Emergency works are required when a road is blocked or blockage is imminent.
Periodic and emergency works are carried out through work orders and paid using a schedule of
rates in the privatization agreement.

All maintenance work on the privatized Federal road network is managed by the Road
Maintenance Management Unit of JKR Malaysia who has 8 regional offices situated
strategically throughout Peninsular Malaysia. A typical regional office is the Selangor Road
Maintenance Management Unit who manages the maintenance of the 585 kms of the Federal
roads in the State of Selangor.

The Federal roads are further sub-divided into protocol, primary and secondary roads. This sub-
division is for the purpose of assigning the different frequencies of maintenance activities
according to the importance of the road. Protocol roads are roads that are frequently used by
high-level officials or foreign tourists; primary roads are those connecting urban centers and
those leading to industrial areas; while secondary roads provide connectivity to the Federal land
schemes.

The State of Selangor’s non-tolled Federal road network, in the year 2002, is made up of a total
of 763 kms of road. Out of this, some 178 kms are currently either undergoing improvement
works or are under maintenance by city councils. The balance 585 kms are maintained by the
concession company; consisting of:
• 93 kms of protocol roads (16%),
• 374 kms of primary roads (64%) and
• 118 kms of secondary roads (20%).

Traffic volume and growth on most roads in Selangor is high, especially in the Klang Valley,
which is the heart of economic activities in Malaysia. At present, there are about 1.3 million
vehicles registered in Selangor, made up of 48% motorcycles, 45% cars and 7% commercial
vehicles. AADT on the protocol/primary roads are mostly in the range from 10,000 to 100,000
vehicles a day, while AADT on the secondary roads ranges from 100 to 2,000 vehicles a day.

MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES
Maintenance reduces the rate of pavement deterioration, it lowers the cost of operating vehicles
on the road by improving the running surface, keeps the road open on a continuous basis and
also includes the process of enhancing the environment of the road itself (ROBINSON ET AL,
1998). Within this broad purpose, the scope of works for road maintenance under the
privatization agreement (GOVERNMENT OF MALAYSIA AND ROADCARE (M) SDN
BHD, 2000) can be conveniently classified as Routine Maintenance, Periodic Maintenance and
Emergency Works.

Routine Maintenance
Works that are scheduled depending on environmental effects and also those responding to
minor defects caused by a combination of traffic and environmental effects. The activities
include:

2
• Pavement maintenance including pothole patching, crack sealing, repairing edge
deterioration and treating ruts
• Shoulder maintenance including topping up and regarding
• Grass cutting
• Road furniture maintenance including cleaning and repainting
• Bridge and culvert maintenance including cleaning, painting and removal of vegetation
• Drainage maintenance including de-silting, cleaning and minor repairs
• Landscaping including watering, weeding, fertilizing and pruning
• Routine inspection

Periodic Maintenance
Works that include pavement treatments that can be programmed to be undertaken over a
horizon of several years and also works involving repair or replacement of assets due to
accidents, natural disasters and vandalism. These includes:

Pavement preventive and strengthening works, including thin overlay, resurfacing, mill and
replace, recycling and reconstruction
Heavy patching of pavement
Repair or replacement of guardrails, signboards, kerbs, marker posts, delineators, road-line
markings, roadside drains, culverts, walkways and motorcycle lanes

Emergency works
Works, including traffic management within 1 hour of receiving the complaint, undertaken to
clear a road that has been cut or blocked due to:

• Fallen trees
• Slope failure
• Floods
• Collapse of drainage structures
• Road accidents

However there are many other road works that may or may not be categorized under
maintenance activities, but are not included in the privatization agreement. This is due to the
specialized nature of some of these works or simply the works do not fall under the category of
‘maintenance’. These include:

• Bridge repair and rehabilitation

• Slope repair and rehabilitation
• Repair or replace electrical assets like street-lighting and traffic lights
• Development works like widening, realignment or dualling.
• Road Safety programmes like motorcycle lanes and junction improvement.

ALLOCATION OF FUNDS
The cost of maintaining different types of road varies considerably (ROBINSON ET AL 1998).
Funds for maintaining the road network should normally be allocated on the principle that
whoever pays should benefit. Although it is possible to maintain some differential cost between
urban and rural areas, flat and rolling terrain, or high and low trafficked roads, some averaging
will be necessary.

The Selangor Federal road maintenance budget is allocated on an annual basis. The budgetary
process is handled by the JKR Roads Branch, which is at the JKR headquarters in the federal
capital of Kuala Lumpur. A given amount is then issued to Selangor Road Maintenance
Management Unit so that spending may commence at the start of the new financial year.

3
A breakdown of the allocation to show the share between allocations for routine, periodic and
emergency works, is as shown in the pie charts in Figure 1. For the year 2001, routine
maintenance received 30.7%, periodic maintenance received 69.2% and emergency works
received 0.1% of the total allocation. In the year 2002, routine maintenance received 42.7%,
periodic maintenance received 57.0% and emergency works received 0.3% of the allocation.
Total allocation remained quite similar for those two years.

Allocation of funds for routine maintenance is in line with the payment method for routine
maintenance, which is based on one fixed cost per km per month for all roads. That fixed cost
was built up based on the individual costs of maintaining the different types of road, and then
averaged over the whole road network. Therefore, future roads, where there are more than two
lanes, taken over by the concession company will be applied a formula for variation of routine
maintenance payment. This averaging of costs has saved tremendous time and avoided hiccups
at the beginning of the concession period due to the absence of an updated and validated
inventory of the roads.

Allocation of funds for periodic maintenance is divided into the following two activities:
• Programmed periodic maintenance works, and
• Non-programmed periodic maintenance works.

Programmed periodic maintenance works are those that involve preventive and strengthening
treatments for pavement. This is output from JKR’s HDM-4 based Pavement Management
System, building on recently collected road and traffic data. Optimisation runs from the system
are used to project annual pavement periodic works for a period of 3 years before data is
updated and the process repeated. Funds are allocated according to the optimization runs, thus
taking into account the future implications of decisions. Strict adherence to the programme is
necessary and the regional offices are not allowed to amend the programme without prior
consent from headquarters. However, some adjustments on the site were necessary due to:
a) Data collection errors,
b) Premature deterioration due to unforeseen traffic growth or overloading,
c) Traffic data estimation errors,
d) Detailed project level inspection prevails.

Non-programmed periodic maintenance works are those that cannot easily be predicted. These
are mainly repair or replacement of damaged road furniture due to accidents, vandalism, thefts
and natural disasters, and heavy patching of the pavement. Whenever a defect that requires non-
programmed periodic works has been identified, either by the concession company or by JKR or
by the road user, a ‘notification of defects’ (NOD) is prepared. This NOD, prepared by the
concession company, contains a description of the defect and lists down the bill of quantities
with an estimate of the cost involved.

A pie chart in Figure 2 shows the breakdown of the types of work carried out in the year 2002.
Most of the works involve repair or replacement of signboards (36%), followed by heavy
patching of the pavement (23%) and replacement of guardrails (9%). Others include repair of
drainage, road-line painting, kerbs, crash cushions and small slope repairs.

Funds allocated for periodic non-programmed maintenance works were way below
requirements. Therefore, prioritization is of utmost importance and a priority matrix as shown in
Table 1 has been used to assign priorities. The matrix places a hierarchy among non-
programmed maintenance works in terms of their impact on the road user, and this is combined
in some way with a road class hierarchy to provide the basis for setting priorities.

Allocation of funds for emergency works is unnecessary as the works involved are traffic
management and clearing a blocked road. Most of the emergency works in Selangor are related

4
to clearing fallen trees and typically costs about USD 100 per event. This involves a very small
portion of the total funds and are easily absorbed by JKR headquarters.

ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Good management decisions rely heavily on there being appropriate and up-to-date information
to support them. Information is needed on the physical details of the road asset and its condition,
which in turn require suitable asset management systems to manage the information. Three such
systems currently being used are briefly described here.

JKR Road Inventory System

JKR’s road referencing system consists of assigning a unique reference number to each section
of the road network. A section refers to a length of road, normally one kilometer in length,
between kilometer posts. For each road section, a diagrammatic sketch of the existing assets is
done using a standard form.

Only physical attributes of the assets are captured, without recording its current condition. An
inspector, with an assistant using a measuring wheel, captures the types of asset encountered,
their lengths and widths if appropriate, and their respective chainages. The types of asset for
which data is captured are pavement, shoulder, land use, formation type, roadside drain, lamp
posts, traffic lights, signboards, guardrails, major junctions, culverts, bridges, motorcycle lanes,
walkways and kerbs. Capturing and updating of inventory data is the responsibility of the
concession company as part of the privatization agreement, at no extra cost.

These manual data forms are compiled and a summary of the data for every section is input into
a computer using the JKR’s Road Inventory System software. Summary reports or query on any
asset can then be easily done.

RAMS
The Road Asset Management System (RAMS) is used by JKR as a network-level planning and
programming tool for pavements in Malaysia (JKR ROADS BRANCH 2002a). RAMS
comprises of a database management tool to provide a seamless link with the Highway
Development and Management tool (HDM-4) to carry out economic analysis of pavement data
to support pavement management decisions.

Survey data required for RAMS consists of the pavement inventory, pavement condition,
drainage, pavement structure and some traffic related data. Data is captured at information
quality level IQL-III, sufficient for programming and planning purposes, and processed into the
specified format through a contract with a specialist consultant. Among the equipment used to
capture data are the high-speed ARRB Multi-Laser Profiler, Falling Weight Deflectometers and
Dynamic Cone Penetrometers. The current cost of collecting all this data is USD160 per lane-
km, and it is outside the scope of the privatization agreement. Data collection has been planned
to be collected across the whole network, excluding the minor secondary roads, on a rolling
programme with a cycle of three years.

Pavement condition data was recently colleted for Selangor in 2002. A total of 527 kms of road
was surveyed, excluding those sections recently resurfaced earlier in the same year. Assuming
the recently resurfaced roads are at an IRI of 2.0m/km, the overall condition of the Selangor
road network was found to be 53% in GOOD (IRI<2.5m/km) condition, 45% in FAIR
(2.5<IRI<4.0m/km) condition and 2% in BAD (IRI>4.0m/km) condition.

Axle load surveys (JKR ROADS BRANCH, 2002b) were also carried out to determine the
Equivalent Standard Axle Load Factor (ESALF) or damaging effect of commercial vehicles on

5
the road. This was also as a check on the ESALF values used to run RAMS. A total of 3 stations
were selected and axle load survey was conducted for the duration of 16 hours per lane. The
weighted average surveyed ESALF agreed closely with those calibrated for in RAMS, and are
as follows:
• ESALF of 2.27 for 2-axles commercial vehicles, as compared to 1.76 in RAMS,
• ESALF of 4.86 for 3-axles commercial vehicles, as compared to 4.57 in RAMS, and
• ESALF of 3.08 for 4+-axles commercial vehicles, as compared to 5.71 in RAMS.

Skid resistance tests, using a Grip Tester, was also carried out on selected sections of the road
network. Most of the sections achieved a correlated SCRIM value of at least 0.4 except for one
20 km stretch of road. Further investigation of that stretch of road will be carried out.

The survey data was run in RAMS using the optimum maintenance standard as shown in Table
2 (JKR ROADS BRANCH, 2002a). An unconstrained programme was then generated to get an
idea of the annual budget required over a planning period of 15 years. A suitable constrained
budget was chosen and an optimization run was performed to arrive at the annual year-to-year
pavement maintenance programme. This programme will be used as a guide for the next three
years.

Routine Inspection System

As part of Routine Maintenance, the concession company is required to carry out routine
inspection of the whole road network. This is carried out twice a week for protocol and primary
roads, and once a week for secondary roads. Road inspectors on motorcycles inspect the road,
stopping where necessary, and record defects that require attention.

Recording of defects is done using a palmtop computer, containing proprietary software. Every
morning, the inspector uploads into his palmtop, the previous inspection data of the roads he
intend to inspect on that day. He then goes off and carry out the inspection, updating the
previous records and appending new defects data. These defects data include:
• Pavement surface - potholes, cracking, edge break, depressions.
• Shoulder - irregularities.
• Drain - lockage, mis-seated covers, missing.
• Road furniture - damaged, missing, obstructions.
• Bridge - blockage of weep holes, graffiti.
• Landscape - obstruction, untrimmed, dead plants.

Occurrences of potholes are reported back immediately upon discovery for immediate action. At
the end of the daily inspection, the record in the palmtop is then downloaded into the personal
computer in the office. A daily inspection report is then output for action by the supervisor.

A setback of the system is that the system is stand-alone in two different sub-regional offices in
Selangor. Thus the data is not readily accessible to JKR. A computer link-up through the
internet is recommended for the future.

PERFORMANCE OF THE ROAD ASSET

Trend of pavement condition
Data collection for pavement condition in Malaysia first began in 1985 with the implementation
of system BSM, JKR’s first pavement management system. Collection of data was through
manual walking surveys and this was continued until 1993, when JKR upgraded its pavement
management system to the HDM-3 based PAMS (TAI ET AL 1995). Since 1993, pavement
data condition has been collected using objective mechanized surveys, consisting of a high-
speed data acquisition vehicle and falling weight deflectometer.

6
Due to problems associated with the accuracy of manual walking surveys (LAI KO, 2000),
those related data are not presented here. The Selangor road roughness data compiled over the
years from 1993, using objective mechanized surveys, are presented in Figure 3. It can be seen
that the percentage of BAD roads has increased steadily from 1993 to 2000, the year before
privatization of maintenance. The road network had deteriorated from 12% of BAD in 1993 to
20% of BAD in 2000, increasing at a rate of about 1% of BAD per annum. However, after
takeover through privatization in 2001, the road network has improved considerably. The trend
of BAD roads has been reversed and only 2% were found to be in a BAD condition in 2002.

This sudden reverse in trend is due to an unusual pre-emptive resurfacing programme carried
out by JKR in 2001. From the extra allocation received, combined resources from JKR and the
concession company resulted in 136.7 kms of road being resurfaced in 2001, as opposed to the
normal roughly 50kms being resurfaced in a year. Another 116 kms of BAD roads were taken
out of the privatization agreement for upgrading by a separate contractor in 2001. All this,
coupled by proper pavement management on the part of JKR and the concession company,
resulted in the sudden reverse in trend.

Having a road network with pavement condition currently at 53% GOOD, 45% FAIR and 2%
BAD in Selangor do not seem all that rosy. This is because traffic growth and axle loads are
increasing in pace with the current rise in development in Selangor. Those pavements in the
FAIR condition are expected to deteriorate quickly into BAD condition if their condition is not
addressed soon.

Potholing occurrences
The most common complaint received is on potholes. Daily printouts from the Routine
Inspection System are supposed to not only identify potholes for repair, but also pinpoint those
potholes identified earlier but not repaired.

The trend of potholing over the years is not available. Recording of potholes, especially on their
exact location, needs to be improved. Only the data from the Routine Inspection System for
2002 is quite reliable and presented here. A total of about 572 counts of potholes, including
counts for those defects that require patching (like delamination and edge breaks), were
recorded in 2002. The data shows that potholes occur more frequently during the months of
April, July, November and December. This appears to coincide with the heavier rains falling
during those months.

Road closures
A total of 12 road closures were recorded in 2001, 7 closures were caused by fallen trees, 3
closures by slope failures and the other 2 by sink-holes. Most of these closures occurred on the
primary road network. All of these closures led to traffic disruptions for a few hours, which if on
busy roads can cause jams a few kilometers long. Preventive measures like trimming of trees
were carried out to reduce these mishaps.

At the time of writing, data on road closures for 2002 was not compiled yet.

CONCLUSION
In many countries, there has been considerable interest in recent years in the privatization of
road maintenance. This interest has been driven by the need for governments to modernize road
maintenance and to obtain input from private sector management skills. This is especially so
where there is seen to be the need for roads with both high quality and capacity.

7
Sufficient allocation of funds remains the single most important issue concerning road
maintenance in Selangor. Effective maintenance management of the road network requires that
budget levels are at least sufficient to keep the core road assets in stable condition in the long
term. This requires that on-going routine maintenance is funded, and that there is adequate
provision for preventive and strengthening periodic maintenance works. Only then can the
performance of the road asset continue to improve.

Privatisation of road maintenance in Selangor has led to and will lead to a stable financing of
routine maintenance over the years. As routine maintenance involves a lump sum scheduled
payment for each month in the contract period, it guarantees a steady supply of work. This, in
turn, assures the concessionaire of a good long-term business opportunity and therefore a market
in which it is worth investing. In tandem with this, the concessionaire has invested heavily in
equipment and other resources to modernize its activities for better efficiency.

Allocation of funds for periodic maintenance is beyond the control of the Selangor Road
Maintenance Management Unit, and there may be some cause for concern. Funds for periodic
non-programmed activities, allocated from already tight budgets at JKR headquarters, remain
insufficient. A transparent allocation formula, based on good maintenance management practice,
needs to be formulated. Meanwhile, prioritization of the repair works is important.

Asset management systems can provide the basis for allocation of funds by assessing the
existing condition of the assets, determining the appropriate levels of investment and prioritizing
maintenance works. These systems need to be improved and integrated over time, while data
needs to be collected and updated, to support management decisions.

8
REFERENCES

Government of Malaysia and Roadcare (M) Sdn Bhd 2000. Privatisation Agreement in relation
to the maintenance of Federal Roads in Peninsular Malaysia. Government of Malaysia.

JKR Roads Branch 2001. Road Statistics 2001. JKR Malaysia.

JKR Roads Branch 2002a. Development of a New Pavement Management System for Federal
Roads in Malaysia. Final Report. JKR Malaysia.

JKR Roads Branch 2002b. The Collection of Engineering Link Data For Federal Roads in
Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor for year 2002. Report on Axle Load Survey and Skid
Resistance Test. JKR Malaysia.

Lai KO 2000. Pavement Data Collection Strategy in JKR Malaysia. Proceedings of the 20th
ARRB Conference. Melbourne, Australia.

Robinson R., Danielson U. and Snaith M. 1998. Road Maintenance Management : Concepts and
Systems. Macmillan Press Ltd.

Tai M.C., Abdul Wahid M. and Lai K.O. 1995. Pavement Appraisal and Management Suite.
Proceedings of 8th REAAA Conference, Taipei.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Ir. Lai Khin Onn is currently attached to the Selangor Road Maintenance Management Unit,
Public Works Department of Malaysia (JKR). His responsibility is to manage the Selangor
Federal road network. He has experience in managing the national pavement and slope data
collection program for the Federal roads, maintenance management software development, data
analysis and works programming. His interest is in road maintenance management systems and
has an MSc in Highway Management.

9
Table 1 : Priority Matrix

Hierarchy of PRIORITY
Non-Programmed
Periodic Maintenance works Protocol Primary Secondary
Emergency 1 2 3
Pavement – heavy patching 4 12 13
Drainage – culvert repair/replace 5 14 15
Drainage – roadside drain repair 6 16 17
Guardrails – repair/replace 7 18 23
Signboard – repair/replace 8 19 24
Roadline – repaint 9 20 25
Kmpost – repair/replace 10 21 26
Kerbs – repair/replace 11 22 27
Road furniture – others and new 28 29 30

Table 2 : Optimum Maintenance Standard

Roughness Annual Average Daily Traffic

IRI m/km
Very Low Low Medium High Very High Extra High
<5,000 5 – 10,000 10-15,000 15-25,000 25-75,000 >75,000
< 2.5 RM RM RM RM RME RME
2.5 – 3.5 RM RM M40R40 M40R40 M40R40 M40R40
3.5 – 4.5 OVL40 M40R40 M40R40 M40R40 M40R40 M40R40
4.5 – 5.5 M40R40 M40R40 M40R40 M40R80 M40R80 M40R80
>5.5 M40R60 M40R80 M40R80 M40R80 M40R80 M40R80

RM - Routine maintenance.
RM - Routine maintenance enhanced with patching of wide cracks at >5% of carriageway area.
OVL40 - 40mm bituminous overlay with preparatory patching of cracks.
M40R40 – 40mm milling followed by replacement with 40mm bituminous overlay.

10
 FIGURE 1 : Breakdown of Maintenance Activities

Year 2001

Emergency
0.1% Routine
30.7%

Periodic
69.2%

Year 2002

Emergency
0.3%
Routine
42.7%
Periodic
57.0%

11
 Figure 2
Periodic Non-Programmed Works

Guardrails
Others
9%
24%
Heavy patching
Roadline 23%
2%

Drainage
6%
Signboards
36%

Figure 3
Trend of SELANGOR Pavement Condition

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%
1993 1997 2000 2002
YEAR

GOOD FAIR BAD

12