Delivering 15-40%
cost savings
on highways maintenance
Using AIM 4.0 software, has enabled Tetra Tech to assess the condition of their roadway with a higher level of granularity than was ever previously possible.
The Challenge
In Florida, failure to meet required performance standards when operating and maintaining highways can result in severe financial penalties for operators.
On Interstate 595, the highway is operated by a concessionaire, who is contracted by the local Department of Transportation (DoT) to operate and maintain the highway to specified standards. Operators are also legally required to collect data to demonstrate their compliance with the standards set by the local DoT.
Tetra Tech is the main contractor responsible for 220 lane-miles (354km) of roadway and 9.5 miles (15km) of toll roads and frontage roads. This major, multi-lane highway was opened in 2014 and incorporates an old state highway into a complex network of new flyovers, underpasses and overpasses.
“Owners are struggling to find the hundreds of billions of dollars needed for upkeep, repair and replacement of all of our roadways and bridges. It’s all about using the data to analyse lifecycle costs and identify and define the performance requirements upfront.”
Bryan Palsat
Manager – transportation asset management, Tetra Tech
The Solution
Probit Consulting worked in close partnership with Tetra Tech, over an eight-month period, to integrate their complex road data into our Asset Investment Manager (AIM) 4.0 platform. Using AIM 4.0 software, has enabled Tetra Tech to assess the condition of their roadway with a higher level of granularity than was ever previously possible.
They were able to immediately compare the condition of the highway network, relative to the required performance specifications set by the DoT. Tetra Tech has also used the platform’s advanced decision analytics functionality to create performance models to predict future scenarios. This has enabled Tetra Tech to develop a successful pavement (road surface) management system, that is underpinned with an optimal maintenance strategy that delivers cost-savings of between 15 and 40%.
“It is the nature of projects involving technology like AIM 4.0 that the benefits continually reveal themselves. Based on projects we have run, a properly implemented pavement management system can deliver a 15-40% cost-saving on maintenance and rehabilitation.”
Bryan Palsat
Manager – transportation asset management, Tetra Tech
Combining expertise to deliver the perfect solution
Tetra Tech are experts in providing asset management services to the transportation sector and they have a dedicated team of engineers with specialist skills in pavements, road surfaces and roadway data collection. We combined their expertise, knowledge and data with our specialist decision analytics platform to deliver all the information need to optimises asset investment.
“Probit Consulting are engineers at heart and became very engaged with the process very early-on. We formed a technical working group comprising both teams and there was a lot of mutual respect between all the technical experts. At times we were working so closely it was like they were part of our company for that project.”
Bryan Palsat
Manager – transportation asset management, Tetra Tech
How Probit Consulting delivered the project
An initial road and pavement survey collected data to assess the condition of the highway network, relative to performance specifications. Baseline measurements were collected on the condition of the roadway including surface thickness, smoothness and condition. This data was then used to create performance models which could forecast future conditions.
“The whole pavement management systems approach means applying thoughtfulness and attention to performance requirements, understanding and using data properly, then taking advantage of the benefits these software programs bring in terms of investigating hundreds and thousands of scenarios and piecing together optimal programmes of work.”
Bryan Palsat
Manager – transportation asset management, Tetra Tech
Creating Risk Maps that visualise potential vulnerabilities
At the core of AIM 4.0 platform are Risk Maps that reveal and visualise the potential vulnerability of assets and services to failure and the value they represent, now and in the future. They can capture the multiple variables that are needed to make investment decisions, depicting them as risk-nodes, along with linkages between them. Careful assessment of the need for actions, such as road resurfacing for smoothness and adding thickness for strength, along with the sequencing of the works programme, can make a difference of millions of dollars in terms of maintenance costs. Road rehabilitation can involve costs of around US$150k for a single lane-mile of roadway; if that can be delayed by just one year, and risk of performance managed, then maintenance and refurbishment can be discounted, offering an immediate saving to the client. When scaled up to a typical P3 roadway network, the savings start to add up.
Empowering contractors to solve unique problems at scale
The flexibility and configurability of AIM 4.0 has enabled us to solve some very specific problems at scale. We are looking forward to working with Tetra Tech in the future on more projects and exploring new opportunities to add value to their clients’ asset management operations.
“Decision analytics software like AIM 4.0 offers asset-intensive organisations the capability to make major investment decisions with much more accuracy, gaining more value from the underlying data and driving cost efficiency.”
Dr Tim Watson
Co-founder & chief strategy officer, Probit Consulting