Asset management and valuation

The asset management working group of the UK Roads Board has produced guidance on asset management; the guidance is comprised of four documents that form a singe suite to provide a good overview of asset management. The four documents include:

• Highway Asset Management Quick Start Guidance note –getting started
• Highway Asset Management Quick Start Guidance note –risk assessment
• Highway Asset Management Quick Start Guidance note –levels of service
• Highway Asset Management Quick Start Guidance note –life cycle planning

Highway Asset Management Quick Start Guidance note –getting started sets out a practical means of getting started with asset management, and identifying the sensible steps that should be taken to progress this practice, and in what order should you address these.

Highway Asset Management Quick Start Guidance note –risk assessment is intended to assist those authorities who have not yet commenced this central aspect of asset management planning but who are familiar with the principles of managing risk and may have applied risk management techniques to other parts of their business.

Highway Asset Management Quick Start Guidance note –levels of service has been produced in order to assist organisations, particularly local highway authorities, in defining and implementing Levels of Service for their networks.

Highway Asset Management Quick Start Guidance note –life cycle planning forms a key part of an Authority’s Highways Asset Management Plan (HAMP). Effective lifecycle planning requires several fundamental asset management activities to have been carried out and considerable asset knowledge to have been established. Without this knowledge, lifecycle plans will not target the effective maintenance and renewal of assets, leading to either premature maintenance or deterioration and possible safety risks to road, and non-road users, and to roadworkers.

The concept of highway asset management is becoming increasingly important for those responsible for managing highway networks. Asset management is not a new concept and most highway authorities are practicing elements of asset management already. However, the service wide application of asset management is a new concept.

The County Surveyors Society (CSS), together with the Local Authority Technical Advisors Group (TAG) have produced the framework detailed in this document to facilitate the meaningful exchange of knowledge and experience on the subject. The framework, published in June 2004, was drafted by a team from Opus International Consutants (UK) Ltd. The Code is available as an Adobe Acrobat file here [060202 - Highways Asset Management Framework.pdf]. Print copies are published by the County Surveyors Society (CSS), price £40 (for details, see http://www.cssnet.org.uk/).

The Asset Valuation Guidance, published in July 2005, was drafted by a team from W S Atkins [www.atkinsglobal.com/transportation] on behalf of the CSS and TAG. The Code is available as an Adobe Acrobat file here [060202 - Asset Valuation Guidance.pdf]. Print copies (ISBN 0 11 552695 1) are published by The Stationery Office (TSO), price £14, and can be ordered from www.tso.co.uk/bookshop or by calling 0870 600 5522.

Both documents are companions to the suite of maintenance Codes of Practice commissioned by the UK Roads Liaison Group. For details of the codes, see here: www.ukroadsliaisongroup.org/liaison/practice.htm.

The Code will be available as an Adobe Acrobat file here. Print copies (ISBN 0 11 552643 0) are published by The Stationery Office (TSO), price £18, and can be ordered from www.tso.co.uk/bookshop or by calling 0870 600 5522.

Managing assets in regards to flooding is becoming increasingly important: the UK Roads Board has produced a brief paper covering Sustainable Urban Drainage and relevant passages from the Draft Flood and Water Management Bill that pertain to highway management. For details click here.