Tools to support maintenance strategies under soft soil conditions

Abstract. Costs for maintenance of infrastructure in municipalities with soft soil underground conditions, are estimated to be almost 40 % higher than in others. As a result, these municipalities meet financial problems that cause overdue maintenance. In some cases municipalities are even afraid to be unable to offer a minimum service level in future.

In common, traditional practice, roads and sewerage systems have been constructed in trenches that consist of sandy material that replaces the upper meters of the soft soil. Under influence of its weight, this causes accelerated settlements of the construction. A number of alternative constructions have been developed, e.g. using light-weight materials to limit settlement velocity.

In order to limit future maintenance costs, improvement of maintenance strategies is desired. Tools have been and will be developed to support municipalities in improving their maintenance strategies and save money by doing that.

A model (BALANS) that weighs the attractiveness of alternative solutions under different soil, environmental and economic circumstances, will be presented.