The UK’s infrastructure has been developed over hundreds of years and asset managers are often required to maintain it based on little available information on the asset, and with short-term budgetary restrictions. This means strategic assets such as roads, rail and water systems are often only repaired or upgraded once a problem has occurred. ICE and ICES say this reactive - rather than proactive - approach often results in major disruption to networks, with social and economic costs from the disruption quickly escalating. ICE’s State of the Nation: Transport report to be published on 20 June, is also expected to highlight this issue and set out recommendations to tackle it.
The ICE/ICES Guiding Principles of Asset Management sets out how more effective asset management practice - which begins at the stage the asset is created and considers the whole life cycle of the asset - can deliver both financial and non-financial benefits including:
- The delivery of services for citizens aligned with local investment priorities
- Reductions in carbon emissions and improvements in environmental sustainability
- Increased co-location, partnership working and sharing of knowledge
- Generation of efficiency gains, capital receipts or an income stream
- An increase in the intelligent use of assets to deliver organisation/cultural goals
- Improvements in governance, effective leadership and change management
David Pocock from the Management Panel said: “Civil engineers developing new infrastructure, normally with long - or very long – term design lives, take decisions in the planning, concept or detailed design stages that have huge impacts on lifecycle performance of assets eventually constructed.
“Asset management should begin with and embrace asset creation, rather than taking over when asset creation is complete. We must also be clear that asset management principles apply whatever the form of procurement.
“We hope this guide will aid asset managers in better understanding the considerations concerned with intended use, capacity and how evolving climate, financial, political and socio-demographic changes will affect infrastructure in the future.”
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