12 Managing our Transport Assets

12.1 Transport Asset Management Plan

We will make best use of property and assets and undertake the maintenance of these assets in the most cost effective and timely manner.

Well maintained local transport assets - roads and bridges plus their accompanying infrastructure - are essential to the delivery of better transport outcomes and the Local Transport Plan.

The concept of transport asset management is increasingly important for those responsible for managing transport infrastructure. Asset management is an established concept which the County Council has already introduced in elements of its work.

The County Surveyors' Society (CSS) has developed a definition of asset management which is applicable to all transport infrastructure; "Asset management is a strategic approach that identifies the optimal allocation of resources for the management, operation, preservation and enhancement of the highway infrastructure to meet the needs of current and future customers."

The key drivers to asset management are:

• Strategic Approach  - taking a longer term view to planning and programming
• Whole of Life - the introduction of life-cycle modelling to identify the best whole life option for the asset
• Optimisation - greater use of asset performance information to enable better-informed decisions to be made
• Resource Allocation - the allocation of resources based on assessed needs, and
• Customer Focus - explicit consideration of customer expectations and documentation of levels of service.

Transport Asset Management covers all our transport infrastructure, including roads and bridges, footways and footpaths, cycletracks and bridleways, street furniture and drainage, and bus stations, stops and shelters.

The potential benefits to be gained by the adoption of asset management include:

• Reduced life-cycle costs
• The ability to track performance using defined levels of service
• Improved transparency in decision making
• The ability to predict the consequences of funding decisions
• Enhanced management of financial, operational and legal risk, and
• Ability to discharge valuation and financial reporting responsibilities.

Asset management is intended to facilitate better decision-making by supplementing empirical judgement and supposition with financial, economic and engineering analysis. Asset management is to cover not only maintenance, but also the full life-cycle of assets, from procurement to disposal, ideally in the context of a ten year plan. It will enable the County Council to better understand and manage the relationship between cost and performance and thereby to provide demonstrably better value.

The County Council aims to develop and maintain a comprehensive Transport Asset Management Plan (TAMP). The intention is to prepare a first TAMP concurrently with the preparations of LTP2, using the 6-stage Generic Asset Management Plan System suggested by the CSS. The TAMP will evolve concurrently with the preparation of LTP2 to take account of the development of policies, priorities, indicators and outcomes, and to ensure unity between the two plans

12.1.1 Work commenced work on the preparation of the Transport Asset Management Plan in summer 2004, taking note of the guidance of the CSS and of the experiences of those highway authorities and consultants who had completed TAMPs.

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