Asset Management

The Directorate for Public Works (Rijkswaterstaat) is responsible for the management and maintenance of the main waterway network (~3.300 km). In this system locks are mostly the decisive bottlenecks in navigation corridors.

In the last decade Rijkswaterstaat has changed from a technical oriented maintenance organization mainly focussed at the component and asset level to a user oriented service provider at the corridor and network level, while the more technical activities at the basis are brought to the market. But this radical change will only be successful if the relations between the technical conditions of components at the basis in terms of loads versus resistance are known and can be explicitly linked to requirements at the network level in terms of availability, reliability, etc. Not just for one single component but for the entire network and not only for today but also for the years to come.

As part of our research we investigate how knowledge on hydraulic structures and systems, risk management principles and management aspects can be combined to come to an optimized management and maintenance strategy of the infrastructure.         

Asset Management Aspects