Wednesday, 13 January 2021
Austroads has published asset management guidance specific for road bridges. The guideline promotes an engineering approach (engineering principles, knowledge, experience and modelling tools) as being the only robust method for understanding the current and future, condition and needs of a bridge network.
Australia and New Zealand road managers maintain around 70,000 bridges on public road networks.
Ross Guppy, Austroads Transport Infrastructure Program Manager said that while there are many asset management documents, they are often generic and are not easily applied to specific assets.
“The Austroads guidelines build on foundational documents, such as ISO 550000 and the International Infrastructure Management Manual, to ensure the specific characteristics and unique needs of bridges are considered over their lifecycle,” Ross said.
Key road bridge characteristics are: their structural capacity to carry heavy loads; the consequences of structural failure; the engineering complexity of structural performance of a wide range of structural types, materials, condition, design loads and actual applied loads; and the high capital value of the asset.
“Expert structural engineering skills and experience are required to maximise heavy vehicle access, and to generally manage and operate bridges safely and efficiently.
The guideline defines best practice asset management for bridges, providing a transparent link between investment and outcomes. It defines a specific and detailed asset management framework for bridges underpinned by risk management protocols in keeping with ISO 31000,” Ross said.
Guidance is provided on formal justification of customer levels of service from bridges, optimum maintenance and renewals interventions at the bridge level and at network level, and identifying, evaluating and reporting on bridge risk.
The guideline also promotes the concept of formally measuring asset management performance to differentiate success from failure; demonstrate results that illustrate accountability to customers and stakeholders; and identify gaps or needs that can justify funding.
Download: Engineering Guideline to Bridge Asset Management
Join us for a webinar on Wednesday, 24 March 2021, 1:00 – 2:00pm AEDT led by Barry Wright, Dr Torill Pape and Peter Shaw. This webinar will take participants through the development of the guideline and provide an overview of the key principles and learnings contained in the guide.
No charge but registration is essential.