Capacity in municipalities : Infrastructures, maintenance debts and ways of overcoming a run-to-failure mentality
(2021) In Local Economy 36(2). p.81-97- Abstract
There is a growing maintenance debt of ageing and critical infrastructures in many municipalities in European welfare states. In this article, we use the multidimensional concept of local capacity as a point of departure to analyse how and in what ways Swedish municipalities work with the routine maintenance of infrastructures, including municipal road networks as well as water and sewage systems. For the road networks, maintenance is generally outsourced to contractors and there is also a large degree of tolerance for various standards on different road segments within and between the municipalities. Less used road segments are not as prioritised as those with heavy traffic. For the water and sewage systems, in-house technical capacity... (More)
There is a growing maintenance debt of ageing and critical infrastructures in many municipalities in European welfare states. In this article, we use the multidimensional concept of local capacity as a point of departure to analyse how and in what ways Swedish municipalities work with the routine maintenance of infrastructures, including municipal road networks as well as water and sewage systems. For the road networks, maintenance is generally outsourced to contractors and there is also a large degree of tolerance for various standards on different road segments within and between the municipalities. Less used road segments are not as prioritised as those with heavy traffic. For the water and sewage systems, in-house technical capacity is needed as differences in water quality are not tolerated. Economies of scale mean that in-house capacity is translated into the creation of inter-municipal bodies. As different forms of capacities tend to reinforce each other, municipal capacity builds up over time in circular movements. These results add knowledge to current research by pointing to the ways municipalities are overcoming a run-to-failure mentality by building capacity to pay off the infrastructural maintenance debt.
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- author
- Alm, Jens ; Paulsson, Alexander LU and Jonsson, Robert
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021-03
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- critical infrastructure, local capacity, maintenance, municipal roads, water and sewage
- in
- Local Economy
- volume
- 36
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 17 pages
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85109617653
- ISSN
- 0269-0942
- DOI
- 10.1177/02690942211030475
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2021.
- id
- af9294ac-7af6-498c-80c5-2e4ce3d66a04
- date added to LUP
- 2022-02-15 07:07:02
- date last changed
- 2022-06-29 11:37:48
@article{af9294ac-7af6-498c-80c5-2e4ce3d66a04,
abstract = {{<p>There is a growing maintenance debt of ageing and critical infrastructures in many municipalities in European welfare states. In this article, we use the multidimensional concept of local capacity as a point of departure to analyse how and in what ways Swedish municipalities work with the routine maintenance of infrastructures, including municipal road networks as well as water and sewage systems. For the road networks, maintenance is generally outsourced to contractors and there is also a large degree of tolerance for various standards on different road segments within and between the municipalities. Less used road segments are not as prioritised as those with heavy traffic. For the water and sewage systems, in-house technical capacity is needed as differences in water quality are not tolerated. Economies of scale mean that in-house capacity is translated into the creation of inter-municipal bodies. As different forms of capacities tend to reinforce each other, municipal capacity builds up over time in circular movements. These results add knowledge to current research by pointing to the ways municipalities are overcoming a run-to-failure mentality by building capacity to pay off the infrastructural maintenance debt.</p>}},
author = {{Alm, Jens and Paulsson, Alexander and Jonsson, Robert}},
issn = {{0269-0942}},
keywords = {{critical infrastructure; local capacity; maintenance; municipal roads; water and sewage}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{81--97}},
publisher = {{SAGE Publications}},
series = {{Local Economy}},
title = {{Capacity in municipalities : Infrastructures, maintenance debts and ways of overcoming a run-to-failure mentality}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02690942211030475}},
doi = {{10.1177/02690942211030475}},
volume = {{36}},
year = {{2021}},
}