The Asset Management section is responsible for a city-wide condition assessment of surface and sub surface assets, in order to forecast and schedule appropriate rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in order to produce an annual capital budget program. The Asset Management group monitors current levels of service, life cycle trends and deterioration models in order to plan and develop an integrated 3 to 5 yr detailed budget and 20 year projected long range capital budget in order to protect the city’s infrastructure investments.
Decision-making Framework
The asset management approach includes the analysis of current and projected asset conditions and incorporates the economic assessment of trade-offs among alternative investment options, using all of the information to help make cost-effective investment decisions.
Pavement Management
Bridge Management
Water Distribution
Wastewater Collection
Facility Management
Projects & Initiatives
Neighbourhood Asset Preservation Program
Reports
State of Our Infrastructure * updated 2009
Urbanization of Rural Cross Sections Within Urban Boundaries
Water Main Management Framework: Part 1 , Part 2
Sustainability Report for the Red Hill Valley Project and Lincoln Alexander Parkway
Asset Management Definitions
“…a methodology needed by those who are responsible for efficiently allocating generally insufficient funds amongst valid and competing needs.”
-The American Public Works Association Asset Management Task Force
“...a comprehensive and structured approach to the long-term management of assets as tools for the efficient delivery of community benefits.”
-Strategy for Improving Asset Management Practice, AUSTROADS.
“Asset Management…goes beyond the traditional management practice of examining singular systems within the road networks, i.e., pavements, bridges, etc., and looks at the universal system of a network of roads and all of its components to allow comprehensive management of limited resources. Through proper asset management, government can improve program and infrastructure quality, increase information accessibility and use, enhance and sharpen decision-making, make more effective investments and decrease overall costs, including the social and economic impacts of road crashes.”
-Organization for European Cooperation and Development Working Group, Asset Management System, Project Description, 1999
“...a philosophy and a state of mind, not a process.”
- Asset Management Section, City of Hamilton
Pavement Management
The City of Hamilton maintains an extensive network of both urban and rural roads, and all classes from local roads to expressway roads.
A centreline-kilometre is a measure of one kilometre of road, regardless of the number of lanes. A lane-kilometre is a measure of one kilometre of road multiplied by the number of lanes. Hence, a one kilometre long, four-lane road, would be considered to be one centreline-kilometre, or four lane-kilometres. Hamilton maintains approximately 2800 centreline-kilometres, or 6200 lane-kilometres of roads. 6200 lane-kilometres of road is approximately the equivalent of travelling the distance from Hamilton to Toronto and back, on a one-lane road, 45 times.
In order to effectively manage and maintain the state of Hamilton’s roads, Hamilton staff utilize a Pavement Management System (PMS). The PMS is a powerful software tool that stores road condition rating data, analyzes and prioritizes road rehabilitation needs and rehabilitation strategies, and predicts future funding needs based on forecasted road deterioration.
The key to managing the City of Hamilton’s roads is to apply the correct rehabilitation strategy at the correct time. This includes applying preventative maintenance strategies to roads in early stages of deterioration (e.g., crack sealing), then applying rehabilitation strategies in later stages (e.g., resurfacing) and finally, reconstructing roads.
Ideally, road reconstruction is coordinated with subsurface infrastructure rehabilitation projects because it is most cost-effective. It increases our customers’ level-of-service and reduces the frequency of construction inconvenience.
Bridge Management
Perform the right treatment at the right time on the right bridge.
The City of Hamilton maintains the second largest number of Municipal bridges in southern Ontatio, spending $6 million on bridge projects each year. To keep costs down and ensure safety, the City of Hamilton has found that it is vital to have both proper and frequent inspections and a good preventive maintenance program. This means taking care of bridge components before they have the chance to break. "Spending a relatively small amount of money today will save us large amounts of money tomorrow,"
Preventive maintenance is defined as a planned strategy of cost-effective treatments applied at the proper time to preserve and extend the useful life of a bridge. Some of the bridge maintenance activities that provide the biggest benefit for the smallest level of investment generally include:
- Eliminating deck joints in old bridges
- Repairing or installing new expansion dams on bridge decks
- Repairing bridge decks
- Maintaining proper deck drainage
- Restoring or replacing bridge bearings
- Repairing or replacing bridge approach slabs
- Repairing bridge beam ends and beam bearing areas
- Bridge painting.
In Hamilton, good bridge management starts with good information on bridge conditions. The City of Hamilton team of consultant inspectors inspect all of the agency's bridges at least once every 2 years. The bridge data is then stored in a management system, allowing City staff to prioritize the maintenance and rehabilitation needs and make sound decisions as to how to best take care of the bridge infrastructure.
A good system of preventive maintenance can breathe new life into old bridges. This is important for Hamilton, as many of its bridges were constructed in the 1960s. However, adequate funding is needed to sustain preventive maintenance efforts. Failing to provide adequate funding for preventive maintenance and deferring good bridge maintenance practices is a recipe for disaster.
Water Distribution
Where will the next watermain break be? When will it occur? How can we best manage them?
These are typical questions the Asset Management Section asks almost on a daily basis. The City Of Hamilton’s water distribution system is an aging asset that dates back to the late 1800’s. In order to ask these and other critical questions about our system, we need to take a pro-active approach and determine where the “hot spots” are so we can effectively focus our capital dollars on the right pipe.
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Before Watermain Lining
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After Watermain Lining
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| The water distribution system is very large. It presently has in its inventory 1,891 km of watermain, 11,835 Fire Hydrants, 15, 710 Valves and 126,786 Water Services and its estimated replacement value is $1.8 Billion. On average, the City’s rating on the Water Infrastructure is rated at a “B” based on the Life-Cycle State of the Infrastructure Report on Public Works Assets (SotI) completed in 2005. This is a respectable achievement to have, and as we grow and expand, we are striving to maintain this rating. This in turn requires us to achieve and maintain a sustainable water distribution infrastructure.
One of the ways to help us do this is by performing a condition assessment of the distribution system. These condition assessments are based on the collection of various pieces of data (information), including: material, size (diameter), age, depth of watermain, soil type, hydrant pressure (measured in psi), and the number of breaks per kilometer per year. A Condition Index has been established to categorize and weight the significance of each piece of data and assign a condition score to each pipe segment placed on a Water Decision Matrix. Through the use of these tools, we are able to locate trouble areas and determine what the most cost effective means of improving the asset is (i.e. Best Life Cycle Solution). More recently we have been looking at other less destructive and disruptive technologies. Some examples of these types of technologies would be relining, slip lining and more recently, structural CIPP lining. All these methods have a place in our decision making processes and are used in the situation that best fits their application, again the best life cycle solution. |
Wastewater Collection
The City of Hamilton owns and operates over 2,500 kilometers of sewers dating back to the mid-1800’s and ranging in size from 200 mm to 2,550 mm in diameter. The sewer system transports sanitary, storm and combined flows. Sanitary sewers carry effluent from each home and business to the wastewater treatment plant. Storm sewers carry rain water from catch basins to various storm sewer outfalls. Combined sewers carry a mix of sanitary and storm flows to the wastewater treatment plant. The sewer system also includes 36,897 manholes, 119,827 storm service connections, 1,000 inlets and outfalls, 15,000 major swales, 6 CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) tanks, 65 pumping stations, and 3 wastewater treatment plants. When you combine the value of all of Hamilton’s sewer system assets the estimated replacement value is $3.1 Billion.
On average, the City’s rating on the Wastewater Infrastructure is rated at a “B” and the Stormwater Infrastructure is rated at a “C” based on the Life-Cycle State of the Infrastructure Report on Public Works Assets (SotI) completed in 2005. The City of Hamilton continually searches for and implements new technological solutions to our buried infrastructure dilemmas in order to provide a higher level of service to the residents of Hamilton.
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Before CIPP Sewer Lining
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After CIPP Sewer Lining
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Maintaining an adequate level of sewer service in a cost effective manner requires a combination of inspection, rehabilitation and replacement technologies coupled with Asset Management best practices. Inspection of most sewers is completed using either zoom camera technology, Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV), or both and is analyzed through software applications and City staff. Once a sewer condition is established a course of action is decided for each manhole to manhole sewer segment. The three main actions are replacement, rehabilitation, or do nothing.
Replacement requires the sewer pipe to be excavated, removed, and replaced with a new pipe. As a side affect the road must also be excavated and restored. This method can be time consuming, expensive and disrupt the community. Replacement methods are used when the sewer condition is beyond the point of utilizing rehabilitation methods or when pipe size upgrades are required.
Most rehabilitation is facilitated using a non-destructive technology called Cured-In-Place Pipe (CIPP). CIPP is installed in the existing sewer without any digging in approximately eight hours. The CIPP liner improves the structural integrity, improves flow characteristics of the existing pipe and is designed for a 50 year life expectancy. The liner is made of polyester felt and thermosetting (heat activated) polyester resin. The final product resembles a PVC pipe. This technology allows the City of Hamilton to fix more sewer pipe with less money in less time than conventional replacement methods. |
Facility Management
The City Of Hamilton facility portfolio consists of approximately 280 structures totaling 4.8 million square feet. The sustainability of the City of Hamilton facility (Buildings & Properties) assets requires the estimation of both immediate and extended capital renewal needs, and that the capital needs be properly planned and prioritized.
In this age of financial restraint, extending the longevity of capital assets has become increasingly important. The City of Hamilton needs their facility assets preserved over even greater life spans in the most cost-effective manner possible. To further complicate matters, City Of Hamilton managers are confronted with ever-decreasing budgets for capital improvements and day-to-day maintenance while remaining responsible for maintaining consistent condition and overall reliability of the asset base.
Effectively managing all aspects of Facility Renewal, which is defined as the task of maintaining a building over its useful life, presents a major challenge to the City Of Hamilton managers. It often requires that we re-evaluate the way in which capital renewal requirements are presented. A strong proactive approach to facility strategic planning employing risk management principles, future fund modeling and event prioritization are merely some of the elements required to exert tight control of capital budgets.
In this era of computer technology and Internet accessibility, the Asset Management section of Public Works embraces all available management tools in order to establish realistic Capital budgets based on future forecasted requirements rather than relying on historical past practices. The resulting strategic plan created within our database can help ensure that building longevity and functional reliability are preserved.
The direct benefits of managing City of Hamilton facility assets in the Asset Management section of Public Works include:
- Understanding the state of your physical assets including replacement costs, lifecycle analysis, and current and future funding needs;
- Understanding the implications of deferred Capital as it relates to measured conditions and strategic goals;
- Building compelling business cases for funding needs and allocations;
- Producing consistent reports designed to deliver accurate planning data in presentable form; and,
- Approving and implementing Capital planning activities based on set priorities in line with the strategic goals of the organization.