Visual Condition Audits – Infrastructure Assets

The Importance of Developing an Asset Condition Rating Matrix Document for Council

Establishing and documenting a standard method to condition rate your infrastructure assets will not only provide invaluable information to your staff who have been tasked to undertake condition assessments, but also to any consultants engaged by you to undertake your 3–5 yearly Data Collection and Condition Audits.

The Data

With good data you can convert your Condition Audit Data into knowledge that you can use to manage and maintain your Assets effectively and efficiently.

Your condition data is integral to developing good Asset Management Plans and is used to determine the asset’s consumption, calculate its depreciation, plan forward works and prescribed maintenance - therefore, it is important that the calculated condition is accurate and as meaningful as possible.

A good Condition Audit can also help you with your forward works and planned maintenance projects, e.g. use the Cracking data to plan Crack Sealing work, etc.

What should you include in your Asset Condition Rating Matrix Methodology?

I'll use Sealed Surfaces for my example:

Usually, a Council will have several Sealed Surface Types and it may be that these different types will warrant different Condition Parameters.

Condition Parameters

Different surface types may warrant some or all of the following Condition Parameters examples. It all depends on your Assets, where they are located, soil type, how they have been constructed, the materials and techniques used, and when they were built.

Shape:

Patching & Potholes:

Cracking:

Surface Texture:

Edge Defect:

Methodology

The Condition is determined from a visual inspection of each road segment and a score is given for each condition parameter. Usually, a severity figure is also collected, e.g. the percentage of effected road segment for each parameter recorded. The individual scores, along with the severity %, are calculated and aggregated up to provide an overall condition for each road segment.

Accurately determining a score for each condition parameter is easier to do if you have developed a Condition Rating Matrix Document for your asset classes.

The Methodology document should:

1. Describe exactly what element the Inspector is required to Rate

2. Describe exactly what each rating means for each condition parameter that will be used for an Asset Class (photographic representation is a good visual aid to help the Inspectors to pick up the correct data)

Developing a Condition Rating Matrix Document provides Councils with a standard method to record conditions uniformly, whether the condition data has been collected by one inspector, or by many.

Potentially, once the Asset Condition Rating Matrix Document has been created and the Methodology determined, it will be relatively easy for anyone to effectively condition rate an Asset simply by following the Methodology in the Condition Rating Matrix Document.

The Condition Rating Matrix will also be the basis for designing the application used to collect condition data in the field. Another bonus is that the Document can also determine what detail should be included in the Specification, if the work is to go out to tender, to ensure the data is collected uniformly and in-line with Council's requirements.