Deighton User Group Conference

Bowmanville, 10-14 July, 2000

New Zealand National Implementation of dTIMS

Our Approach and Experiences

Gordon HartMaintenance EngineerTransit New Zealand, NAPIER

Coverage• Background• Integrated Business Systems• Project Objectives• Project Development• Project Management• Implementation• Project Deliverables• Where we are up to• Some things we have learned• Some things we need

New Zealand ?

All of the graphic files

removed to make the

presentation small enough

to email

Unique Asset Management Challenges

New Zealand Roading AssetsFunction Sealed km Unsealed

kmTotal km

StateHighway

10347 117 10464

LocalUrban

14867 491 15358

Local Rural 30641 35402 66043

Roads

TotalLength

55855 36010 91865

TotalBridges

Total Lengthkm

Single Laned TimberBridges

3525 116 205 28

The public road network in New Zealand would wrap around the world 2 ¼ times

We are dealing with a substantial network

Many roads

Small population

Leads to

Thinly distributed income

An issue of scale

Population 3,581,000

Land Area 610 sq km

Population 3,702,000

Land Area 268,670 sq km

New Zealand is

• Geologically VERY young– Many difficult soils

• Geologically VERY variable– Many different subgrade conditions– Many different construction materials

• Environmentally variable– Many different climatic zones

A modelling nightmarechallenge

New Zealand RoadsNew Zealand Roads

• Lightweight, low strength pavements• Lightly trafficked• Crushed rock chip sealed

pavements that are very sensitive to moisture content

• Timely and regular maintenance is required to avoid the need for disproportionate future expenditure

Roading Administration in New Zealand

State Highway Management Structure

T RANSFUNDNEW ZEALAND

T RANSIT NEWZEALAND

M INIST ER OFT RANSPORT

Responsible for road funding

Responsible for management of State Highways

One of74

RCA’s

RCA Development Cooperative

State Highways

• Transit New Zealand

Local Roads• 74 Road

Controlling Authorities

RIMS Group

• Roading Information Management Systems Best Practice Group

AssetManagement

Systemsandbest

practice

AppointedRepresentatives

Delivery (Acquisition)

Traditional PSMC

Predictive modelling used to:

• manage the client risk

• determine investment strategy

Predictive modelling used to:

• assess the contractual risks

• compare merits of bids

Some ingrained NZ Asset Management Principles

(that we have had to comply with)

Economic Imperatives

1 Economics rules

2 Economics rules

3 Economics rules

Investment Criteria

• Benefit-Cost Ratio– Differential in user

costs

Divided by – Differential in capital

costs • Offset by maintenance

cost differential

• Net Present Value– Not targeting user

benefits

BUT– Agency costs would

be reduced by the application of investment

More than 70% of the national State Highway programme is subject to some form of benefit

cost analysis

Competing Initiatives

Service Level

• Maximise condition• Minimise user costs

Cost Effective Life Cycle

• Minimise agency costs

• Minimising the total ownership costs accrued over the life of the asset

We were lucky!Ideally suited to TTC analysis

Routine Maintenance

• Do nothing is NEVER an option

• In international terms, New Zealand employs a very high standard of routine maintenance intervention– If it breaks, we fix it– Deterioration is disguised

• Do minimum is the least cost option required to maintain the service level

Treatments, Triggers and Resets

ASSETCONDITION

EXCELLENT

POOR TIME

Minimum Acceptable Standard(TRIGGER)

Decay in Condition(DETERIORATION)

Treatment Applied

ConditionImprovement(RESET)

Maintenance Cost Management

$ perKILOMETRE

TIME

COST DEVELOPMENT CURVE

AWT/Routine MaintenanceECONOMIC BREAK POINT

OPTIMALINTERVENTION

POINT

HOLDINGMIS APPLIED

THESE COSTSAREAVOIDED

ExistingInventory

(about 12 years old)

Existing Inventory - RAMM Assets• Pavement Structure• Surfacings• Shoulders & SWC• Signs• Culverts• Minor Structures• Markings• Railings• Traffic Facilities• Features

Demand• Traffic• Loading• (Environmental)

Condition• Roughness• Rutting• Shoving• Texture• Scabbing• Cracking• Skid• (Deflection)

Work• Rehabilitation• Maintenance Work

Models and KPI’s

Complex Indices• Surface Integrity Index• Maintenance Cost

Index

Models• Roughness• Rutting• Texture• Cracking• Potholes• Ravelling

Performance Indices

• Remaining Seal Life• Remaining Service

Life (These are utilised

principally to control asset consumption in PSMC situations.)

Location Reference

• Longitudinal SH - RS - Displacement

e.g. 2 / 244 / 1.45

Data Element Location Method/Length

Note

Assets Start and/or end Position Offset frombaseline

Condition

Manual

500 metre sections sampled 10 % each Only reallycracking left

Condition

High Speed

Continuous summed to 100 metresections

Annual totalnetwork survey

Treatment Lengths Start – End Positions

Varying lengths

Condition datasummarised to

Treatment Length

Treatment Length

• The unit at which work will be executed (intervention applied)

“A uniformly performing section of pavement that is performing differently to the sections either side”

Asset Management Plan

Project Management

Funding Management

Asset Management

Performance Management

Financial Management

Inventory of Assets and the Condition of them

TreatmentIntelligence

DeterministicProbabilistic

Fund AllocationModel

Project RankingProject

Justification(Year 1)

ContractedPerformanceAchievement

ConditionAchievement

Trend Analysis

ForwardWork

ProgrammeAnnual

Plan

ProjectManagement

System

Business Practice ModelBusiness Practice Model

Maintenance Intervention

Strategy

Computer tools are only one input

We are not trying to replace expert knowledge

Inventory andCondition Data

FieldInspection…..

Optimised WorkProgramme

ComputerAnalysis….

Principal Objectives• Single nationally controlled model

• Fully integrated into accepted asset management systems

• Co operative development (pool of resources)

• Upskill the entire industry (Client, Consultant and Contractor)

• Transfer ownership

• Sustainable

Development Principles

• Coordinated– principal consultant with key technical

responsibility

• Pragmatic– Progress not perfection

• Simplicity– Keep it simple– Sophistication only when timely– Depth of the ocean not height of the waves

Developed in 3 phases Phase I Preliminary System

• First cut setup

• Limited calibration

• Sort data issues

• Training

• Motivation

• Custom software

• Pavement strength issues

• Launch for familiarisation

• Extensive documentation

Phase II Refinement

• Refined setup

• Refined models

• More calibration

• Training

• Documentation perfection

• Research needs assessment

• Support (help desk)

Phase III Further refinement

• Capture HDM 4

• Ongoing support

• Further calibration

• Model control and audit procedures

• Research support

Success Factors

• Experienced team - drew on appropriate international expertise

• Drove pragmatism very hard

• Maintained simplicity• e.g. treatment strategies

Dr. Christopher R. Bennett.

Mr. Theuns Henning

Dr. Nabin Pradhan

Dr Gustav Rhode

Mr. Mike Riley

Mr. Doug Wilson

Development ExpectationIntellectual Data

AppropriatenessResearch Operational

AdoptionDevelopment of theability to use the tools(training, up skilling)

Condition andinventory datasuitable for modelling

Refinement ofmodels based onappropriate data

Controlmechanisms,consumption andutilisation ofoutputs

Principles Understood

Developingunderstanding

Ability to interpretoutputs

Most datainappropriate

Sensitivitiesunderstood

Changed collectionand QA principles

Appropriate databecoming available

Research based oninappropriate data

(concerned withprinciples)

Model refinementcapability based onappropriate data

Principlesunderstood

Controlmechanismsestablished

Managementmethodologies can

absorb outputs

Outputs used insetting policy

True Modelling Capability

Ongoing Refinement

Functional Relationships

RIMS GroupProject Owner

Deighton AssSoftware

HTC LtdImplementation

TransfundPolicy

RCA’sUsers

Contractual

Functional

License

Support

Sales

Software Setup

1999 RIMS

1 5 -10

Economic Analysis Period

Performance Analysis Period

Every treatment on every treatmentlength is triggered

every year

Generate only what is needed to achieve standard

Performance Analysis Period

Trigger anything to satisfy standardPerformance Analysis

Economic + Performance Analysis

IssueWe trigger all treatments

on need not strategyTHEN

we optimise the strategies(there are no

predefined strategies)

Typical run times

• Years 1 to 10 every treatment in every year• Years 11 to 20 performance based• 700km• 1709 sections• generating 36 strategies per section• about 10 functions and resets• 4.5 hours to generate• 20 minutes to optimise• pentuim III 550mhz 128mb RAMM

We find this quiteacceptable

Implementation Model

AssetInventory(RAMM)

Ad HocData

(Specialised)

StrengthProgramme

(Assign SN)

InterfaceProgramme(Data Conversion)

dt2699File

RIMSStandard

Setup

LocallyCalibrated

Setup

dTIMSPerformance &

EconomicAnalysis

ReporterProgramme

CalibrationStandards

StandardisedOutputs

Intellectual

• Sustainable training programme• Asset Management• Software• Setup• Data issues

• Three tiered• Management - Understanding• Technician - Operation• Expert - Calibration

• Extensively documented

Data

• Conversion of existing condition data

• Long term move to more appropriate data

• e.g. Rutting data (length -> depth)

• Provision of flow charts to assess missing data

• Focussed initially on key sensitivities

Strength Determination

• Horses for courses

• In increasing degrees of sophistication– Typical Pavement Design Method– ARRB Method– Benkleman Beam Method– CBR Layer Method– FWD without Layer Thickness Method– FWD with Layer Thickness Method

• Software developed to ease the pain

Converting Data

RAMMDatabase dT2699

StrengthProgramme

Other Data

Interface

programme

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist1.

We want the tools used as a matter of course by the every day practitioner !

Industry Awareness

• Develop life cycle asset management expertise

• Application of the principles as a matter of course by the average practitioner

Software

dTIMS InterfaceSoftware

StrengthProgramme

Calibrated Setup

• Initially pragmatic

• Ongoing refinement and calibration

• Meeting set requirements– NZ economic approach– International state of the art– flexible (it can grow with us)– etc

Documentation

• dTIMS manual

• Three volume domestic manuals– Technical Reference Manual

• How it all works

– Software users guide• For the NZ software

– Using the system and tutorials• dTIMS idiots guide• Worked examples

Training Package

• Sustainable

• Develop programme

• Develop delivery capability

• Delivery

• Covers• Pavement management principles• dTIMS

Research Coordination

• Identify needs

• Vet proposals

• Assist with steering projects

• Support academic researchers

Status

• Most RCA’s have brought in

• Phase I delivered June 1999

• Phase II rolling out now

• Phase III commissioned

• Awareness achieved (extensive training)

• Enthusiasm abounds

• Setup and models proving reasonable

Issues

• A lot of calibration yet to pass

• Data deficiencies yet to be corrected

• Some knowledge yet to be gained

• We need more days in the year

(Key success factors)

• Recognise the limitations

• Set realistic goals/expectations

• Progress not perfection (pragmatism)

• Keep it simple– Success if RESURFACING predicted in Y10

• Its only a tool not an answer

Retain Reality

Remember - Our profession is more artistic than scientific

Calibration

Benchmark

Customisation

Calibration

Research

LTPP

Reasonableness Checking

Calibration Coefficients

Setup Change

New models & model forms

Verify models (long term)

Integration

• Providing an integrated solution is essential

• MUST ensure that data conversion and assignment of defaults is simplified

Priority Enhancement Needs Type A• Option to define which is the base

strategy• Exclude maintenance only strategy• Optimisation based on IBC and NPV Type B• Exogenous benefits for treatment types• Budget categories for treatments or road

sections

Option to define the base strategy

• Do nothing is not an option in N.Z.

• Routine maintenance will always be executed

• Does not affect the analysis BUT makes reporting cumbersome

• Using post processing software at present (MESSY)

Exclude Maintenance only strategy

• Do Nothing and Maintenance and Periodic are the defaults

• M&P is often more than required (low use roads)

• Because it is automatically selected on the efficiency frontier it disguises treatments that may be more economic

Optimisation based on IBC and NPV

• We cannot currently optimise on NPV

• A network could contain both conditions:– treatment justified by user benefits (IBC)– Intervention would optimise agency costs

(NPV)

• Requirement - if IBC < limit, check for minimum cost strategy (present value of agency costs)

Exogenous benefits for treatment types

• Similar to delay cost option

• Need to be able to weight treatments based on benefits not calculated by dTIMS e.g. :– Traffic safety– Environmental impacts

Budget categories defined for treatments or road sections

• Currently different parts of a network with different budget constraints must be treated in separate optimisation runs

• For example, the urban and rural sections separately budgeted

• Need to be able to define budgets for parts of network as well as treatments