Design and construction costs for the majority of haul roads represent only a small proportion of the total operating and road maintenance costs. The use of an appropriate road maintenance management strategy has the potential to generate significant cost savings – particularly in the light of increases in rolling resistance due to the interactive effects of traffic volume and wearing course deterioration.

With large trucks being used, it is inevitable that some deterioration or damage to the road will occur, and this damage needs to be regularly fixed.  The better the road is built, the slower the rate of deterioration and thus the less maintenance required.  A poor road, however, will quickly deteriorate and will need very frequent maintenance (often to the detriment of other roads in the network).

For further details, see the book:

Mining Haul Roads: Theory and Practice
1st Edition
Roger Thompson, Rodrigo Peroni, Alex T. Visser

CRC Press
Published December 11, 2018
Reference – 294 Pages
ISBN 9781138589629
CAT# K386669

Further technical background is available here.