Overview
ASCAM will relate asset condition prediction to measures and network value. It will create a framework to connect existing asset management practices into a holistic, integrated cross asset, pro-active approach. It will relate technical and societal issues, like pavement degradation or failures in the “dynamic traffic management systems” to end-user service levels such as efficient traffic flow, safety, reliability of travel time, noise hindrance or environmental issues.
The added value of the research results is to:
- Connect (technical) measures to end-user service levels
- Add value by connecting inspection and monitoring information to the necessary measures
- Compare maintenance strategies (measures and costs) in terms of end-user service level
- Add relevant topics like “grand societal challenges” (mobility, climate change) to the enduser service levels
Using this approach should lead to better service for the available (maintenance) budget
Results
Long-term planning or anticipation of the timing and volume of investments along a stretch of road is in the interest of both, road administrations and users, and would contribute to optimised life-cycle costs of European roads, by ensuring a safe and sustainable network.
ASCAM aimed to show how costs and consequences of maintenance interventions can be quantified over a certain timeframe using predictions of the lifespan of objects. By comparing various maintenance scenarios, an optimum solution could be found by using predictions concerning the number and costs of interventions as well as their consequences on so-called end user service levels, a common metric that permits a holistic, cross-asset calculation. These mutual EUSLs such as safety, comfort or emissions should allow policy makers and maintenance operators to overcome boundaries between their specific fields of knowledge and communicate on the same level when it comes to planning road infrastructure investments.
The principles of the framework were implemented in a spread sheet-based demonstrator for a hypothetical road network. The example stretch of road was used in the ASCAM project to assess the appropriateness of the concept and to illustrate the functionality of the framework’s idea on an understandable level. At the time this paper was submitted, the framework was currently in its evaluation phase and various European road operators were asked for feedback on the applicability/usability of the demonstrator in their particular agency.