Our goal in Infrastructure is to advocate to ensure that Local Government attains the funding and resources required to facilitate provision of appropriate roads and transport infrastructure services to local communities throughout the State, irrespective of geographical location, socio-cultural and economic circumstances.

The key issues within this Policy Area include:

• Aerodromes
• Heavy Haulage
• Public Transport
• Rail and Freight
• Roads
• Road Safety

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RoadWise Program

RoadWise is the Western Australian Local Government Association's Community Road Safety Program and has been in operation since 1994.

RoadWise aims to contribute to the long term vision of the Road Safety Council in eliminating road crashes as a major cause of premature death and injury, by increasing community support, partnerships and participation in the implementation of Towards Zero: Road Safety Strategy 2008-2020. Click here to access the RoadWise Program website.

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ROMAN

The Association has responsibility for managing ROMAN (Road Management System) on behalf of the owners Main Roads and IPWEA. ROMAN is used by all Local Governments for their road inventory data and condition data.

Click here to link to ROMAN. Member login is required to access ROMAN.

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ROMAN II

Sadly ROMAN I is near the end of its life.  WALGA has been working on delivering a replacement software program.

Click here to link to ROMAN II, the ROMAN replacement project, and find out more. Member login is required to access ROMAN II.

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Regional Road Groups

For further information about Regional Road Groups including maps, contact details and meeting dates, click here.

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Report on Local Road Assets and Expenditure

Local Government’s manage 72 percent of roads in Western Australia. This annual Report enables Government and the community to determine the source of road funding and application of these funds to the upgrade, maintenance and renewal of the local road network. Data is presented on a local and regional level.

Report on Local Government Road Assets and Expenditure 2007-2008

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State Road Funds Agreement

The Agreement provides Local Government with an allocation of funds based on a percentage of the vehicle licence fee revenue incorporated in annual funding appropriations by the State Government to Main Roads Western Australia. It guarantees a level of funding that Local Government can use to plan for the future, determine project priorities so that funds made available are allocated to projects and works of the highest priority, resulting in funding provided being used in the most effective and efficient manner possible.

Click here to access the agreement.

Click here to access the procedures.

Review of the State Road Funds to Local Government Agreement and the development of a new Agreement

Executive Summary - State Road Funds to Local Government Agreement Review - ARRB Group, June 2010
Full Report - State Road Funds to Local Government Agreement Review - ARRB Group, June 2010
Infopage - New State Road Funds to Local Government Agreement, July 2010 

Extension of the current Agreement for twelve months

As advised, the Minister for Transport agreed to WALGA’s request to extend the State Road Funds to Local Government Agreement 2005/06 to 2009/10 for twelve months. This provides funding and certainty for the 2010/11 local roads programme and enables negotiations to be underpinned by good research and further consultation.

The aim is to have a new Agreement in place by October 2010 which will come into effect from July 2011/12. This will provide time for consideration in State Government budget deliberations.

WALGA commissioned the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) Group to review the performance of the current Agreement.

The research found that the fundamentals of the Agreement are sound and any change should be incremental. It highlighted how the purchasing power of the funds translated to indices such as the Road and Bridge Construction Index, General Construction Cost Index and Local Government Cost Index and where the pressure points were in terms of over and under expenditure within categories and sub categories. The reasons for over and under expenditure have been illustrated.

Findings from ARRB’s research and road group input via questionnaires and workshops with the Regional Road Groups indicate that:

Some key findings/recommendations of this review for a new Agreement are as follows:

• That the new Agreement has a five year term.
• Retain the four existing principles of the current Agreement and include two new principles in the Agreement – developing and applying good asset management practice in maintaining the local road network and promoting a ‘Safe System’ approach in managing local road infrastructure.
• The Agreement should include a minimum allocation of funds for each year based on a more statistically robust vehicle license fee projection.
• Local Government should continue to receive their full % share of the actual (not just projected) VLF revenue collected.
• A mechanism to facilitate carry-over of unexpended funds from year-to-year for projects facing resource constraints, equipment relocation requirements, clearing permit delays, or extreme natural events, should be considered.
• Since there is no clear-cut optimum for the vehicle-class combination, the allocation to Local Government for the new Agreement should be based on all vehicles, not on a vehicle-class level.
• To address under-expenditure, there should be:
• earlier budget announcements, and stronger guidelines to help minimise under-expenditure
• better fund management via long term planning, annual and mid-year fund reviews
• greater resource sharing of regional crews
• re-prioritisation of expenditure
• training of administrative/finance personnel.
• For each subcategory, the recommendations are as follows:
• Road Project Grants – Seek improved response times from the Water Corporation, Western Power and the Department of Environment and Conservation to ensure timely preparation and completion of projects.
• Road Project Grants – Staging of projects into planning (preconstruction) and construction components in different years.
• Both Direct Grants and Road Project Grants should be targeted to fund simpler asset preservation oriented projects in order to preserve the health of the network, including periodic resurfacing of sealed and unsealed roads. Both of these operations are simple to specify, procure and deliver, and are essential to asset preservation. This would be a clear demonstration of the commitment to one of the key new principles and to maximising community benefits.
• To retain most of the existing subcategories of the Agreement, except for that of National Parks/Rottnest Island/Kings Park and support to DEC.
• To create new subcategories under Strategic and Technical Support for:
• monitoring and evaluation of the Agreement
• contributions towards pavement research
• production of crash statistics (better crash data and data analysis)
• asset management (implications and linking to ROMAN II).
• Reducing crashes is a key State objective and means of funding the infrastructure contribution in ‘Towards Zero’ is required. WALGA should urgently investigate how this can be done by effectively targeting scarce resources and other complimentary actions.
• Analysis of Governance arrangements indicate that there is a need for greater flexibility in fund allocations to the three Categories in the Agreement, a focus on Local Government roads and more standardised project prioritisation procedures across Regional Road Groups.
• Key performance indicators could include an Expenditure Performance Index, that is the number and proportion of projects completed on time and within budget within categories and sub categories. Also asset management indicators and safety indicators should be developed. They should be chosen to measure performance trends in meeting more clearly focused objectives, such as the proposed asset preservation and crash reduction targets recommended herein. There would be for monitoring purposes only and with no financial incentives or venalities applied.
• That WALGA advocate to the State Government that Main Roads WA receive their full percentage allocation of VLF collected (as opposed to those projected and budgeted) and that this has no negative impact on the allocation of funds to Main Roads from other State Government sources.
• The State Government review their fee setting policy for vehicle licence fees based on NTC charging determinations and work undertaken by the NTC and Austroads on the marginal cost of road wear.

The Report presents a number of scenarios for consideration in negotiating a new Agreement. These are based on a number of assumptions and include:

• Base Option representing the ‘status quo’ (27% of VLF).
• Option 1 for addressing identified incremental needs (28% of VLF).
• Option 2 representing a one fifth contribution from the new Agreement to the total estimated asset preservation and safety initiatives (combinations) needs:
• Option 2a for addressing estimated total needs (64% VLF)
• Option 2b for addressing estimated Asset Preservation needs on Local Roads of Regional Significance (LRRS) and killed and serious injury needs (35% of VLF)
• Option 2c for addressing estimated killed and serious injury needs (30% of VLF)
• Option 2d addressing estimated Asset Preservation needs on (LRRS) (32% of VLF).
• Option 3 representing total estimated Asset Preservation (LRRS) needs (37% of VLF).
• Option 4 representing estimated killed and serious injury needs for LRRS (33% of VLF).

These options provide for a range of outcomes that will impact the decision whether to negotiate an incremental, a total needs, or just a regional road needs scenario in the new Agreement.

The WALGA President and Deputy President supported by the Transport and Roads Policy Forum comprised of WALGA State Councillors will be leading the negotiation and consultation process supported by WALGA staff.

Further work is being undertaken on funding for commodity routes, key performance indicators, options to enable the carry over of funds, funding requirements for bridges, access roads servicing remote Aboriginal communities, and road safety. WALGA is in the process of further modelling based on the ARRB research in relation to the quantum of funds needed for sub categories and categories in line with over expenditure and future needs.
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Current and Emerging Issues

Click here to view infrastructure related issues.
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Reports

Infrastructure's Key Activity and Regional Road Group Reports are available for download. These reports provide an overview of activities undertaken by the Infrastructure team.

Click here to access reports.

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Infrastructure Links

Austroads

Institute of Public Works Engineers

National Transport Commission

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE)

Office of Road Safety

Main Roads WA

Western Power Local Government Website