Development & Implementation of a Structures Management System for a P3 Contract

On February 4, 2005, Brun-Way Highways Operations Inc. (BHOI) entered into a 28 year and one month contract with the Provincial Government, to operate, maintain and rehabilitate (OMR) approximately 275 kilometres of 4-lane highway in New Brunswick. The contract consists of approximately 261 kilometers along Route 2 between Longs Creek, just north of Fredericton to the Quebec border, and the remaining 14 kilometers along Route 95 at the intersection of Route 2 in Woodstock to Maine, USA. A significant requirement of the contract was the implementation of a Structures Management System (SMS) for bridges, overpasses, underpasses, drainage structures with a span length greater than 3 meters and overhead sign trusses within the highway corridors. The objectives of the SMS were to achieve asset preservation to ensure all structures are well maintained throughout the duration of the contract to exceed the design life expectations and meet the contractual requirements for the minimum remaining life at the contract termination date. SNC Lavalin ProFac (SLP), one of the BHOI partners, has significant experience with the management and maintenance of buildings and has developed asset management systems specifically for these facilities. Initially BHOI intended to purchase off-the-shelf asset management software but instead worked with SLP to modify the existing system for buildings to suit the needs of a highway facility. This included providing a central applications database capable of inputting, storing, assessing, forecasting and reporting on approximately 150 separate structures. The development of this database included gathering tombstone data, conducting structure inspections following the AASHTO Bridge Inspection Standards and developing a condition rating for each component to establish an overall Health Index for each structure. This paper describes BHOI’s SMS, the challenges encountered during the development, the associated advantages and disadvantages of adopting such a system, recommendations for future considerations compatible with this system and conclusions assessing the effectiveness of this system.