Digital Transformation in Road Maintenance Management: Drivers, Barriers and a Readiness Framework

Road maintenance management is important for ensuring the sustainability of infrastructures, road safety, and effective transportation systems. Nevertheless, the current issues faced by road agencies include inadequate resources, aging assets, fragmented data environments, and increasing maintenance demands. In this regard, digital transformation can be viewed as an opportunity for improving maintenance activities and managing assets more efficiently. This study aims to identify the drivers and barriers associated with digital transformation initiatives and to develop a Digital Readiness Framework for Smart Road Maintenance Management. To achieve that, the conceptually driven methodological framework was selected to critically examine and analyse available literature on such topics as digital transformation, road maintenance management, smart infrastructures, Building Information Modelling (BIM), Internet of Things (IoT), digital twins, data governance, and asset management. Specifically, thematic analysis technique was used for grouping the findings of the conceptual review into three categories: drivers of digital transformation, implementation barriers, and dimensions of digital readiness. Overall, four drivers were highlighted including improved operational efficiency, enhanced decision-making process using data analytics, improvement of services offered, and sustainable infrastructure management. In turn, four implementation barriers included organizational problems, human resource limitations, technological constraints, and finance and governance constraints. Using findings from the literature review, a Digital Readiness Framework for Smart Road Maintenance Management, which includes organisational readiness, human readiness, technological readiness, and policy readiness, was formulated. The proposed model underscores the connection between transformation drivers, implementation challenges, and the readiness factors necessary for facilitating effective digital transformation. It is evident that digital transformation involves more than mere technology uptake and calls for a comprehensive understanding of organisational, human, technological, and policy requirements necessary to make digital transformation feasible. The proposed framework provides valuable insights into the topic of digital transformation in infrastructure management and can be used by road organisations to adopt innovative road maintenance management practices.

Digital Transformation; Road Maintenance Management; Smart Infrastructure; Digital Readiness Framework; Asset Management

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