Dr. Slawomir Heller is teaching Road Asset Management during postgraduate studies at the TU Warsaw
Road Asset Management: From theory to practice
The course Road Asset Management is preparing civil engineers very selective to different tasks in the infrastructure management. The road authorities as well as regional and local authorities are facing new challenges in the planning of the traffic facilities. „The responsibles in the authorities has to make strategical decisions while considering economic and social aspects. Strictly speaking, they need to combine a high engineering expertise with a good knowledge in management practices“, Dr. Heller explains. „With an Asset Management System, tailormade strategies and solutions can be developed and implemented. The authorities benefit from trained personnel, who are able to build a bridge from theory to practice within their own organizational structure.“
During the lecture in Warsaw Dr. Heller taught the basics of Asset Management and it´s significance for the road infrastructure. He explained the Asset Management System and the Asset Management Plan and showed the requirements of a modern condition diagnostics. Dr. Ciolkosz-Styk covered the topics Risk Management und Key Performance Indicators. Under her direction the acquired theoretical basics could be adopted by return: the participants of the course were splitted in six groups, to take part in individual workshops and interactive exercises. The students were high motivated and later they expressed themself very positive about the organization of the lecture. They will take a lot of aspects from the Asset Management into their own organization.
Education and training in the Asset Management
HELLER is looking back to 25 years of experience in the maintenance management and has already initiated various educational activities to develop the fast-growing Asset Management into the road management. The subjects of the study Asset Management was implemented in the curriculum of some technical universities in Germany and Poland. Dr. Heller is teaching it in Germany at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal and in Poland at the Technical Universities in Danzig und Rzeszów. „We are on a good way,“ says Dr. Heller. „But the rapid growing demand still needs a lot of education and training initiatives, which are part of our current work.“
The company is focussing advanced training courses in Road Asset Management as well as postgraduate study courses. This studies qualify the modern Manager of road infrastructure according to the requirements and achieve a connection to the contents of traditional study paths. For the evaluation of the curriculum at the TU Warsaw the guidelines and targets of the Technical Committee „Asset Management“ of the World Road Association PIARC, where Dr. Heller represents Germany. Under his direction furthermore the working group Dissemination and Education Asset Management as a subsidiary of this committee.The working group has already drawn essential programs and systematical objectives, which are already used and validated in practice. Presently, the Asset Management Guide is in preperation as manual of PIARC. It was also used with it´s current state as educational material during the lecture in Warsaw.
