Municipal Road Records
On the basis of the provisions of the Decree on the Public Roads Classification Criteria, Official Gazzette of the RS, no. 49/97, 113/09 and 109/10–ZCes-1, all municipalities in the Republic of Slovenia were obliged to establish the first categorization of municipal public roads no later than three months after the Decree’s implementation. The first categorizations of municipal public roads were carried out in the years 1998 and 1999.
Municipalities are obliged to keep several records of municipal roads:
- Legal ones that determine which roads are categorized. This takes the form of the Ordinance on municipal road categorization.
- Technical ones that show the actual state of technical elements. Here, data on the alignment, elements, traffic, condition and infrastructure of roads and facilities is recorded. This data is also recorded in the Road Database (Banka cestnih podatkov).
- Data on the spatial course of roads. The position of road axes can be graphically displayed on spatial planning maps, such as aerial photographs (DOF), topographic plans, lidar, etc. These are kept in the Consolidated Cadastre of Public Infrastructure (ZK GJI).
- Actual land use of public road infrastructure, which show the land parcels according to which municipal roads are built and categorized. These are kept in the Register of Actual Land Use of Public Road and Public Railway Infrastructure.
All four records have to be coordinated. This is regularly verified by the Slovenian Infrastructure Agency in either periodic inspections or whenever the Agency comes in contact with individual records.
Categorization of municipal roads is a record that seems unnecessary, bureaucratic and easy to manage; however, an inappropriate management approach can have major consequences. Disputes may arise between land owners and road operators, as land owners cannot freely use the plots since they contain a large number of roads categorized in the past. Moreover, impossible road user demands alongside the high costs of road management only add fuel to the fire.
Roads are living things that change as the terrain changes. For this reason, it is also extremely important that operators monitor the situation on the ground and regularly update road records. This is the only way to minimize issues arising between users and road operators.
How, then, should the problem of the establishment, management and maintenance of road records be properly tackled?
It is important to choose a suitable and professionally qualified contractor who also has appropriate credentials. In Slovenia, there are a few of us. This way, you will receive the best advice possible, as well as examples of good practices and high-quality consulting services, so that the adopted legal acts can be problem-free, with no implementation issues or even lawsuits from injured users and land owners.