INSIGHT | ASSET MANAGEMENT
ASSET MANAGEMENT: NOT SOMEBODY ELSE’S PROBLEM
Martin Knights FREng and former ITA President discusses the importance of the intelligent care of ageing assets and gives details of a new initiative tasked with producing guidance on the management of tunnels
Mark Wild, CEO of Crossrail, forecasts that Crossrail
1 will last for 300 years (The Economist, August 2021). Perhaps the holes in the ground may last that long, but will they be used for rail transport in the 24th century? Maybe it will evolve into a spatial conduit for ‘Crossrail version 5’ ? More likely, it could be a linear urban farm, a longitudinal data-storage tube for Google, or an Amazon ‘quick delivery’ cargo module transit under Oxford Street in Central London. The point is that in addition to the new build, our
Above:
Refurbishment of Haymarket tunnel, Edinburgh.
PHOTO: LEO MCKIBBINS
Over the past 10-15 years, the tunnelling industry has been delivering major new-build projects such as Crossrail, Tideway, HS2 and others, as well as planning future projects, for example, the Lower Thames Crossing. In parallel, we see how clients and operators must effectively manage the ever-growing infrastructure asset legacy. New technology is enabling proactive maintenance to
be undertaken remotely, safely and efficiently, as well as allowing monitoring in real time. We need to embrace the practices of adjacent industries in the adoption of survey, inspection, monitoring, prediction and controls systems that allow us to manage tunnel assets safely, remotely and continuously. Planning to operate assets over a 100-year life
is not somebody else’s problem. Increasingly, it is mandatory for prebuild requirements to demonstrate that infrastructure is not just fit for the intended foreseeable purpose (i.e. serviceability and durability), meets capacity requirements, and can be efficiently maintained. It will also become necessary for owners to consider adaptability, resilience and possible evolving needs (crystal ball-gazing comes to mind).
40 | November 2021
owners and operators will have to continuously manage the legacy infrastructure that we have (e.g. 100-year- old plus London Underground tunnels; the 30-year-old Jubilee Line Extension, 100-year-old Rotherhithe and Blackwall Road Tunnels, and the 30-year-old Channel Tunnel, to name a few). That means ensuring that the existing footprint can be adapted to changes in capacity, new management technology and possibly even repurposing its use. In addition, there will be demand for more convincing evidence that new infrastructure build is necessary and that it fulfils the prevailing societal requirements, i.e. being resilient to climate change, is low- or zero-carbon, offers convincing value measured across a wide spectrum of indicators and is affordable in construction and operation.
NEW INITIATIVE I gave a presentation at the BTS 2020+1 Conference in London in late September 2021. My chosen theme was as above and coincides with my recent appointment as Chair of a new CIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information Association) steering board tasked with producing guidance for industry on the management of tunnel assets (old, new and future), and to produce standard procedures so that common practices can be embraced by a wide range of stakeholders, including owners, operators, legislators, funders, insurers, government agencies, consultants, contractors and supply chain providers. It will share best practices from UK and international sources and will include recent developments in tunnel linings, materials science, data management, observation, control and prediction. In parallel, and most importantly, it will need to recognise
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