I joined Arcadis and other guests in their Melbourne office this week to hear Peter Dourlein, Arcadis Global Director of Asset Management Netherlands, facilitate a great discussion on sustainable solutions and resilience in aging transport infrastructure.
The group explored the challenges posed by aging transport infrastructure and discussed strategies to maximise asset life and value. This is imperative given the focus on sustainability and emissions from new versus existing transport infrastructure. In the Netherlands road construction has stopped to enable them to meet their EU sustainability obligations.
The role of industry as both a contributor and leader was highlighted by Peter Dourlein, referencing the European Union’s focus on Industry 5.0 – where industry is a key driver in economic and societal transitions and also the leader in both the digital and green transition.
It is imperative for financial and environmental sustainability that more focus needs to be given to asset management in the discussion on transport infrastructure. A case in point is that it is very unlikely the Government’s review of the 10-year $120 billion infrastructure pipeline will give any consideration to the whole of life costs.
Anyone traveling on Australia’s regional road (and rail) network can attest to the fact there is a significant maintenance shortfall. This was a fact reinforced by the Oxford Economics forecast that road maintenance will fall again in FY24 and over the forward estimates.
In an era where we are developing digital twins and on the verge of Generative Artificial Intelligence, it is incongruous there is little attention given to the information required for asset maintenance. As a consequence, documentation is still paper based and delivered by the container load. Peter Dourlein suggested this needs to be a clear KPI in the handover of transport infrastructure.
A meaty issue to consider as we head towards Net Zero by 2050.
#assetmanagement #sustainability #transportinfrastructure #netzero2050
Andrew Bethune; Jacqui Banks Peter Dourlein Michael Kilgariff and Clara OwenActivate to view larger image,
Activate to view larger image,