Increased investments in maintenance without asset management ineffective

From 22 to 24 October 2018, the European Road Conference took place in Dubrovnik, Croatia. One of the invited speakers was Dr. Slawomir Heller. The expert for asset management pointed out that higher investments in road infrastructure can only be successful in combination with asset management. The conference was organized jointly by the European Union Road Federation (ERF) and the International Road Federation (IRF).

The two non-profit organizations are among the key representatives of the roads and mobility sector, alongside the World Road Association PIARC. The aim of the European Road Conference was to deepen the understanding of these challenges, present possible solutions, and achieve consensus on key policy, investment and planning measures. A central topic was asset management. The participants discussed experiences from Southern and Eastern Europe and international trends in this discipline.

In his lecture on "Asset Management as a challenge of the 21st century", Dr. Heller pointed out that an increase in the investment volume in transport infrastructure without the inclusion of asset management will not achieve the expected benefits. Instead, in the expert's opinion, the existing reserves in management should be used to the full. By a better selection of projects, an accelerated realization of investments and a more efficient use of the existing infrastructure, considerable savings can be achieved and the deficits in the absolute investment level can be counteracted. As estimated by the McKinsey Global Institute, this savings potential, in terms of the overall technical infrastructure, amounts to 40% of the global investment volume, i.e. almost one trillion US dollars annually.