National Highways has launched its revised asset management policy and approach with a focus on whole life costing and delivering an even more consistent approach to asset management on its network.
The strategy, Our Approach to Asset Management, said that while the organisation has an established approach to whole life cost in line with its Licence requirements.
“Affordability challenges can constrain our ability to adopt a whole life cost solution for each scheme due to short term financial pressures. However, we recognise that maturing our whole life cost capability can minimise the impact of our maintenance and renewals costs and enable value for money decisions. Decisions based on whole life costs can reduce the number of repetitive interventions on the network and thereby minimise disruption to our customers. Our asset management catalogue maintenance has an important role to play as intervening early to treat defects can prevent more costly repairs in the long term,” said the strategy document.
As part of its development in this area, National Highways has been:
*Implementing its asset class strategies, and defining specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time
bound (SMART) actions which translate its strategic objectives into tangible actions for managing our
assets.
*Agree ownership of the SMART actions and ensure these are funded to support the delivery of its
asset management commitments. These are funded to support the delivery of its asset management
commitments.
*Delivering an asset management systems strategy, enabling us to rationalise existing systems, to provide
greater accessibility to data, supporting more consistent decisions.
*Delivering a supporting roadmap that details a technical and commercial plan for the existing
systems landscape.
*Improving its asset data governance and establishing clear data requirements that support our
asset management processes.
*Introducing predictive maintenance concepts through trialling digital technology and modernising
the way we undertake our asset inspections and monitoring.
“The decisions we make are informed by robust and readily accessible asset data and information. Our
asset management systems provide a repository for this data and information to support the enhancement, operation and maintenance of our assets. Through the production of our asset management systems strategy and governance of our asset data, we will consolidate
our systems to provide a common environment for the management of our data, minimising duplication. During RP2, we will embrace digital technology to support the delivery of our digital roads strategy,” said the strategy document.
The organisation said asset management would be further ’embedded’ into its way of working.
National Highways Chief Highways Engineer Mike Wilson said: “National Highways delivers customer service through good asset management – enhancing and managing our assets safely and reliably. We make decisions that consider the impact on the environment whilst ensuring the country’s economy is supported by a safe and sustainable road network, now and in the future. Our strategy is focussed on delivering better asset management decisions that will improve customer service, consider environmental sustainability and effectively manage the risks on for its roads that keep our customers safe.”
The full strategy can be read here:
approach-to-asset-management_v_final.pdf (nationalhighways.co.uk)
