ABSTRACT
Asset managers of civil infrastructures are faced with increasing complexity in their networks, due to increasing societal and technical demands, ageing infrastructure and limited budgets. A safe and reliable infrastructure, managed from a multi-perspective life-cycle view, is of vital importance for a sustainable and competitive society. Life Cycle Management (LCM) opts to create an optimal value for society over the life cycle of infrastructure. The fact that many civil assets come to the end of their technical or functional lifespan stimulates the development and implementation of LCM. This paper focuses on the renovation and replacement program of civil infrastructures of the Dutch public asset manager Rijkswaterstaat. In the paper, we distinguish 6 main challenges for asset managers: (1) making reliable prognoses for assets; (2) broadening towards a network approach as an opportunity for redesign; (3) developing innovations for increasing requirements and budget restrictions; (4) realizing adaptive networks to cope with future challenges; (5) combining functionalities to increase added value; and (6) maximizing value for society by playing with complexity. Essential at these six challenges is the interaction with other actors, such as other asset managers, stakeholders, and service providers. Asset managers are recommended to start timely with programs of renovation and replacement, and to develop their organizational competences to meet with the challenges in a way that our networks are fit for future needs.
