Moderna kulturvägar Undersökning för värdering och urval av det moderna vägnätet enligt Trafikverkets metod för kulturvägsinventering

Abstract

The Swedish Transport Administration’s task is to assess and identify the cultural values in the state road network through their evaluation method. The identified roads with high cultural values are highlighted as Roads of Cultural Significance [RCS]. Currently, very few roads from the modern time period of the 1950’s to the 2020’s are highlighted as RCS. This study has aimed to identify the reasons behind the few highlighted modern RCS, if it’s harder to assess them, and also if there are complementary sources that could facilitate the assessment of modern RCS. By assessing the general viewpoints from people working with RCS through a survey, as well as identifying knowledge gaps in the RCS-method and completing them through literature studies, the study shows that the modern roads in fact are harder to assess and identify than the older roads, due to their standardized attributes from which it’s hard to select the most valuable roads. Contributing to the difficulties is their large scale. The study shows that the presentation of the modern roads in the RCS-method contribute to the sense that the modern roads are harder to assess and identify. The literature study shows that the material presented in the RCS-method contains a lot of useful information in terms of the modern roads, however the information is spread across a lot of different sources. The survey implicates that the people working with the assessment and identification of RCS lack time to read through the extensive material in the RCS-method. Further on, the survey and literature study implies that the RCS-method’s mandatory and recommended literature lack information regarding the modern roads, especially for the time period 1980’s to the 2020’s. The modern roads need contextualization in terms of historical and societal influencing factors when assessed as a RCS, and can’t be assessed in the same way as the older roads due to their high focus on speed and function. A complementary source material has been identified and can contribute to a facilitation of understanding and assessing the modern roads as RCS. Further, a more coherent and summarized source material from the Swedish Transport Administration in the form of a guide or a compendium regarding the modern roads and their contextual history and cultural values is desirable, which the complementary material found in this study can form the basis for.