For years the US infrastructure issues have plagued the states, locally and across the country. Many of its bridges, roads, water systems, dams, and other critical infrastructure are aging and in poor condition.
These structures urgently require significant federal, state, and local investments to keep it from getting worse and build resilience from the increasing effects of climate change.
The US $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) couldn’t have come at a better time.
Billed as a “once-in-a-generation” spending and the most significant federal investment in the country’s infrastructure for decades, it promises to fix the country’s crumbling infrastructures that had been put off for too long.
How can state and local official optimize investment spending and better prioritize competing infrastructure projects?
The ASCE report, “CHANGING THE INFRASTRUCTURE EQUATION: Using Asset Management to Optimize Investments,” recommends the adoption of an asset management program as a key to ensuring the maximum value on infrastructure projects while minimizing total operation costs.
It will also provide state and local officials with an overall strategy to manage asset infrastructure better while delivering the service levels that customers desire.
The report revealed findings from an October 2019 poll from the Government Business Council to state and local government employees regarding their perceptions of their organization’s management of its public assets.
While many respondents feel confident that their organization uses an asset management strategy to guide the upkeep of their public assets, 19% think there was little to no political support for asset management.
There were also 34% who felt that political support is vital for improving asset management, 66% cited the demands for additional funding as an incentive that could catalyze improvements to asset management, and 37% wanted to increase training and awareness of asset management.
The polling results show that more state and local organizations see the advantages of asset management and want to pursue policies supporting it.
The report encourages greater adoption of asset management practice through the following policy recommendations:
- Consolidate best practice standards for different infrastructure assets across agencies into one center;
- Create an infrastructure commission or team to oversee the consolidation of infrastructure data across asset classes;
- Require continuous oversight and accountability for completed asset management plans to ensure strategic use;
- Require asset management plans as a condition to receiving federal funding (already a transportation requirement but could be applied to water systems); and
- Create grant and low-interest loan programs to assist localities and states with setting up asset management inventories.
The bottom line is that applying infrastructure asset management practice can be a game-changer for asset owners.
It offers a proactive strategy to manage and assess the condition of their infrastructure assets and provides them with an asset inventory to assist with long-term funding decisions.
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