Managing London’s M25 Motorway

Goals

Connect Plus and Connect Plus Services are responsible for managing and maintaining London’s M25 Orbital Motorway under the terms of a 30-year, multi-billion pound DBFO (Design-Build-Finance-Operate) performance contract. The M25 is one of the most heavily traveled roadways in the United Kingdom.

Connect Plus Services recognized that in order to meet the performance requirements in the contract, they would need to implement an infrastructure asset management system to meet three specific strategic goals:

1. Provide a Routine Maintenance Management System (RMMS) for the entire M25 asset portfolio that supports spatial search and mobile data collection

2. Facilitate and enhance operational efficiency and asset performance

3. Mitigate asset lifecycle renewal risk 

Challenges

Principal among the challenges that Connect Plus Services faced with the implementation of the infrastructure asset management system is the sheer size of the M25 DBFO contract. 

Connect Plus Services is responsible for the 30-year management of an infrastructure asset portfolio consisting of 150,000 assets, including 40,000 pavement sections, 3,000+ structural assets, and 15,000+ mechanical and electrical tunnel assets. 

Additional challenges included the contractual obligation to hand back assets in similar or better condition than a baseline asset condition measured in 2009. 

Connect Plus Services also faced the challenge of integrating the new solution with existing systems such as mobile data collection—as well as training the staff to use the new solution. 

Solutions

Connect Plus Services implemented AgileAssets® Structures Analyst™, Structures Inspector™ and Foundation as the core components of the new solution. Key features include: 

1. RMMS that supports inventory management, inspections workflow, condition scoring, defect/work order management 

2. Live condition reporting capability and dashboard 

3. Cross-asset defect management with spatial search, performance reports, and dashboards 

4. 30-year, multi-constraint work plans optimizing overall expenditure for pavement and structural assets 

5. 1-year and 5-year short-term, multi-constraint work plans to better understand the impact of current investment planning 

Benefits

The new solution helped Connect Plus Services meet its strategic goals and achieve the following key benefits: 

1. Enhanced asset performance 

2. Mitigation of asset lifecycle renewal risk 

3. Optimized, long-term investment planning 

4. 5% long-term efficiency improvement, resulting in savings of £30M in pavement management costs and £18M in structures management costs over the life of the 30-year contract 

5. Repeatable and auditable approach to optimized work planning