Abstract Manager

Asset Management Planning Regulation for Municipal Infrastructure (O. Reg. 588/2017) mandates municipal asset owners in Ontario to develop, adopt and update a strategic asset management policy and asset management plan(s) to align their organizational goals with the municipal services that need to be supported over the long term. This includes monitoring asset performance, condition, understanding asset life cycles and forecasting maintenance/replacement cost to inform program planning. In addition, bridges are required to be inspected a minimum of every two years under the direction of a Professional Engineer using the Ministry’s Ontario Structure Inspection Manual (OSIM) (O. Reg. 472/10 - Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act).

While OSIM inspections have been adopted by bridge owners for many years, the first generation of Asset Management Plans (AMP) been adopted by municipalities within the last 10 years, and municipalities are now working on the second or third iterations of their plans and/or have created asset class specific sub plans. With each iteration and gathered knowledge, there is an opportunity for asset owners to expand, improve, calibrate and correct their plans and adjust their organizational objectives. For example, while bridge inspections and their inclusion as an asset class are mandated by the two aforementioned regulations, some asset owners have since expanded their asset inventory to identify and include other transportation structures such as non-structural culverts and retaining walls within their AMPs.

This paper examines gaps identified between bridge and other transportation structure inspections and subsequent inputs to asset management programs, summarizes lessons learned and provides recommendations to improve the alignment between inspection results and overall asset management objectives. It highlights key requirements and instructions provided in the OSIM, reviews the meaning and calculation of condition indices, addresses common challenges, and identifies opportunities where owners can finetune their respective structural inspection programs and asset management plans to meet organizational objectives.