An Asset Management Plan (AMP) can be conceptualized as a “business plan” for an organization that has stewardship responsibilities for an infrastructure network. It should reflect the vision of the road organization in relation to its mission.
The following chapter focus on the reasons why an organization should have a plan, explaining its benefits, the type of questions that should be considered; and the concerns that an AMP should demonstrate in its implementation. This chapter also contains considerations about the wide range target audience of an AMP. Finally it proposes a list of steps to be taken into consideration.
An asset management plan (AMP) can be conceptualized as a “business plan” for an organization (PIARC 2008) that has stewardship responsibilities for an infrastructure network. When considering whether or not to develop an AMP, it may be useful to consider questions such as the following (PIARC 2014, PIARC 2016.1):
The AMP is a document that brings all of these concerns together into a single plan (perhaps with multiple references to supporting documents and plans) and that tells the story of the Road Organization in relation to its mission. There is no one “” document structure for an AMP since the structure will depend on how the organization plans to utilize the document. However, there are real benefits to having a standard AMP structure, which enables a repeatable and standard document.
The audience for the AMP can be arranged into concentric rings of involvement. If an asset management leader and steering committee consisting of representatives from key sections within the organization are already in place, then many of those individuals will naturally serve on the core team that does most of the writing of the AMP. The remainder of the steering committee members would serve as reviewers. If the steering committee and leader are not yet appointed, then it will make sense to appoint AMP authors who can eventually serve in the implementation roles.
Practitioners describe the AMP as a “living” document. As the AM planning process is repeated on an agreed cycle, the output of that process (the AMP) will develop and change to accommodate the organization’s increased knowledge and understanding of service levels and performance measures and how the organization’s policies and programs affect them (PIARC 2014).
A best practice AMP should demonstrate the following:
The AMP plays a key role in connecting the organization’s corporate strategic direction with implementation tools, ensuring that the organization can achieve its mission in the most cost-effective manner while delivering the required levels of service.
The target audience for the AMP is potentially wide ranging, with different elements of the plan of interest to different stakeholders, as described below.
Senior decision makers: Senior decision makers, including elected members, need to support the AMP and make the necessary financial commitment to support the plan. The AMP can be a valuable tool in showing system condition, funding needs, and the impact of different funding levels (PIARC 2005, PIARC 2016.2).
Road Organization’s staff: Asset managers and/or practitioners are responsible for developing and then delivering the AMP. The plan can be used as a benchmark to monitor progress against the organization’s asset management framework. The AMP can be a valuable tool in showing system condition and identifying performance gaps but also in explaining priorities and the resource allocation decision making process. The AMP explains how the Road Organization does business.
Other stakeholders: These are potentially wide ranging and may include road users, local communities, and special interest groups. The plan informs the stakeholders about how the organization does business, including its basis for resource allocation in managing their network.
The AMP explains the basis for the allocation of budgets and the development of financial plans. It provides evidence to justify the levels of budgets that are necessary and the likely impact different funding scenarios may have on the performance of the asset (PIARC 2005, PIARC 2016.2). Through the AMP, asset management may be set in the wider business context and provide support for needs, etc. The plan also provides information on how asset management, including works programs, will be delivered and funding requirements met. Consideration should also be given to how the AMP links to or incorporates the highway maintenance plan as well as short- and long-term transportation planning.
The proposed steps involved in developing the AMP are summarized and explained below.
Step 1: Develop asset inventory
The asset inventory or registry is a database or spreadsheet inventory of all assets within an asset group or service for which the asset management plan is being developed. At minimum, it needs to include pavement and bridge assets. Inclusion of other physical assets is recommended.
Step 2: Assess performance and failure modes (PIARC 2013)
1. Undertaking asset condition evaluation serves two purposes:
To identify rehabilitation and maintenance needs, the condition evaluation must be timely (Usually annual or biannual) and detailed. Condition evaluation requires the identification of individual defects, such as transverse cracks in pavements, blocked drainage appurtenances, or roof leaks, and the evaluation of their severity and extent. Monitoring this detailed level of condition has several advantages, as follows:
2. Assessing the condition of assets subject to regulatory-driven inspections follow specific standards for assessing condition.
Asset performance has the following three primary components:
Operating cost, utilization, and the condition of the asset should be known to estimate the timing of each of the following possible failure modes:
3. Evaluating economic failure: An asset has reached a point of economic failure when it is no longer competitive with asset options that are available in the marketplace for delivering the same or improved function. A business case including a lifecycle cost analysis of feasible alternatives is usually required before a change-out of the asset goes ahead.
4. Evaluating capacity failure: The asset does not have the capacity to meet its designed performance.
Step 3: Determine residual life
Residual life is determined once the likelihood and timing of the imminent failure mode is known. Residual life is the time until failure and is particularly important for managing high-cost and high-risk (high-consequence) assets. A prediction of time to failure enables the asset manager to initiate a planning process for the renewal of the asset prior to incurring the costs and service-level impacts of failure.
Step 4: Determine lifecycle and replacement costs
Lifecycle costing (LCC) involves determining all costs of owning and operating the asset from planning through retirement or replacement.
The lifecycle cost of an asset is determined as follows:
LCC = capital cost + lifetime operating costs + lifetime maintenance costs + disposal cost − residual value
Lifecycle costs are largely locked in at the design stage, indicating that collaboration between operations, maintenance, and design staff is an essential requirement during the design of new facilities or the modification of existing facilities, as is the need for full lifecycle cost comparisons to be made for feasible alternatives.
Step 5: Determine future demand
This step provides an assessment of the potential impact of future demand on the transportation assets.
Possible factors to consider to assist in the forecast of new demands may include:
Steps required to determine future demand:
Typical reliability assessments of future traffic demand forecasting are:
Minimum: Based on the experience of staff predictions with consideration of the knowledge of past demand trends and likely growth patterns.
Low: Based on robust projection of a primary demand factor (e.g. : population growth) and extrapolation of historic trends. Assessment of risk associated with demand change broadly understood and documented.
Medium: Based on mathematical analysis of past trends and primary demand factors. A range of demand scenarios is developed (e.g. low, medium and high).
High: Based on mathematical analysis of past trends and primary demand factors. A range of demand scenarios is developed with the consideration of risk and the identification of mitigation options.
Step 6: Determine business risk (criticality)
This step identifies critical assets, which are those assets that are high cost and/or result in detrimental levels of service and significant consequences if they fail. By understanding where the greatest risks lie, it is possible to focus investment and attention where it matters most and actively mitigate against non-tolerable risks through the asset management planning process.
Risk exposure is calculated as follows:
Risk exposure = probability of failure × consequence of failure
Step 7: Optimize operations and maintenance investment
Optimization of operations and maintenance investment requires that strategies are actively considered for the purposes of meeting an asset’s service-level performance requirements. An informal survey by the committee as part of the development of this guide indicated that 6 percent of respondents undertook reactive maintenance only, and 46 percent stated that their maintenance was somewhat proactive but mostly reactive.
Step 8: Optimize capital investment
Steps 1 to 7 have provided the following information:
1. An asset register spreadsheet on which to build the asset management planning analysis;
2. Condition of each asset and likely failure mode;
3. Likely remaining life or timing of asset failure;
4. Current replacement cost of each asset;
5. Current and targeted levels of service;
6. Identification of critical assets using a risk exposure score calculation method;
7. Current and likely future operations and maintenance costs after reviewing maintenance and operations strategies to meet level of service targets.
Step 8 is to bring the data and information established in Steps 1 to 7 together to evaluate the best operation, maintenance, and capital investment strategies needed to deliver the required level of service at the best cost and level of risk exposure. This process is often referred to as optimization.
Step 9: Determine the best funding strategy
This step evaluates the available funding strategies to implement the asset management plan’s investment requirements determined in Steps 1 through 8.
Asset management staff provide the financial analysts with investment requirements represented in the funding “buckets” using the rules and policies established by the transportation agency for allocating costs to customers and other funding sources. An analysis of the impact of the charges for the proposed maintenance, operations, and capital expenditures required to meet the prescribed levels of service over the planning period should be included in the asset management plan. This information then represents the net increase (or decrease) in the cost of service associated with the plan.
Step 10: Document the asset management plan
Step 10 is the final step in the process and is concerned with the packaging of the asset management plan information into a form that communicates well with operators and executive decision makers.
Scotland, T. (2007). Road asset management plan for Scottish trunk roads: April 2007–March 2009, https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/32978/j408891.pdf.
AASHTO (2013). AASHTO Transportation Asset Management Guide - A Focus on Implementation - Executive Summary. Pubblication no. FHWA-HIF-13-047, https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/asset/pubs/hif13047.pdf.
PIARC 2005. Evaluation and funding of road maintenance in PIARC member countries, Technical Committee 9 Financing and Economic Evaluation, ISBN: 2-84060-182-6, (https://www.piarc.org/ressources/publications/2/4552,09-08-VCD.pdf).
PIARC 2008. Asset management practice, Technical Committee 4.1 Management of Road Infrastructure Assets, ISBN: 2-84060-211-3, (https://www.piarc.org/ressources/publications/4/6020,2008R11WEB.pdf).
PIARC 2013. Maintenance methods and strategies, D.2 Road Pavements, PIARC Paris France, ISBN: 978-2-84060-323-8, (https://www.piarc.org/ressources/publications/7/19456,2013R08-EN.pdf).
PIARC 2014. The importance of road maintenance, PIARC Paris France, ISBN: 978-2-84060-349-8, (https://www.piarc.org/ressources/publications/1/22262,2014R02EN.pdf).
PIARC 2016.1. Preserve your Country's roads to Drive Development, PIARC Paris France, ISBN : 978-2-84060-385-6, (https://www.piarc.org/ressources/publications/8/24531,2016R07EN-Gestion-Patrimoine-Routier-Road-Assets-Management-World-Road-Association-Mondiale-Route.pdf).
PIARC 2016.2. Assessment of budgetary needs and optimisation of maintenance strategies for multiple assets of road network, PIARC Paris France, Technical Committee 4.1 Management of Road Infrastructure Assets, ISBN: 978-2-84060-378-8, (https://www.piarc.org/ressources/publications/8/24533,2016R04EN.pdf).
Road Asset Management Plan 2016-2019, (http://www.highland.gov.uk/downloads/file/502/road_asset_management_plan).
Transport New Zealand, (http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/state-highway-asset-management-plan/docs/state-highway-asset-mgmt-plan-2012-2015.pdf).
Shetland Islands Council - Roads Asset Management Plan, (http://www.shetland.gov.uk/roads/documents/DraftRAMP.pdf).
FHWA (2019). Federal Highway Administration Transportation - Asset Management Plan, (https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/asset/plans.cfm).
These practices have been tested in several instances and case studies are being prepared. They will be presented here when available. If you want to share a case study, please contact assetmanagementmanual@piarc.org.