Development of a Maintenance Management Prioritisation Model for Low Volume Roads: A Case Study of Mbeya District, Tanzania

This study addresses critical maintenance prioritisation challenges in low-volume road infrastructure within Tanzania Rural and Urban Roads Agency (TARURA) - Mbeya District, characterised by resource constraints and systematic planning deficiencies. Using a mixed-methods research design, the study surveyed 51 practitioners and conducted stakeholder interviews to identify 14 technical factors influencing maintenance prioritisation, assessed through the Relative Importance Index (RII) methodology. Safety hazards emerged as the most critical factor (RII = 0.681), followed by structural integrity of bridges and culverts (RII = 0.667) and road surface condition (RII = 0.659). Multiple regression analysis established significant relationships between technical factors and maintenance prioritisation scores, achieving a strong correlation coefficient (R = 0.845) and explaining 71.4% of variance in prioritisation decisions. The model equation provides systematic guidance for resource allocation based on safety hazard severity, structural integrity, surface condition, drainage capacity, flood vulnerability, traffic volume, and road age. Validation across nine road sections demonstrated practical applicability with perfect correlations (1.0) between priority scores and road availability performance. The findings indicate that TARURA-Mbeya District practitioners prioritise safety and structural integrity over conventional traffic-based metrics, reflecting sophisticated risk-based decision-making approaches. This research advances infrastructure management understanding by developing a context-specific, technically defensible, and institutionally practical maintenance prioritisation framework for resource-constrained environments. The developed model enables evidence-based decision-making while maintaining flexibility for local conditions and professional judgment integration.