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3.6 Maintenance policy
Maintenance of the infrastructure is important for the quality and the accessibility of the
roads. However there are two ways to manage the required maintenance:
- Reactive policy
Maintenance will be carried out when a road is damaged.
- Proactive policy
Maintenance will be carried out before a road can be damaged.

In most areas of the world road infrastructure is managed by a reactive policy. This means that
maintenance will be carried out when:
- Road is actually damaged.
- Cause of the damage is known.

However, in flood risk areas the main disadvantage is that when a flood occurs, all the roads in
the affected area will be damaged at once. And there are no or limited alternative roads
available. This could lead to the situation whereby, after a flood, villages or cities could be
isolated. In this case a proactive policy is more appropriate.

With a proactive policy, possible damages will be prevented and the roads will be available
directly after a flood. With traditional systems in the past a proactive policy was mostly not
feasible. Now, PowerCem technology offers new opportunities.

3.6.1 Reactive policy
For a reactive policy it is assumed that the traditional construction as given in paragraph 3.4
will be damaged as result of a flood.

Figure 3.14: Schematic cross section of a
traditional construction

During a flood the road will be damaged by erosion. In this study it is assumed that all the
roads will be damaged in such a way that the complete construction has to be renewed. Figure
3.15 shows the schematic damage of the road.

Figure 3.15: Schematic cross section of a damage road
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