On Friday, I had the privilege of joining Governor Snyder as he released the Michigan Infrastructure Asset Management Pilot Final Report. As you can see in the photo above, we are all pretty pleased to have successfully completed this project. To understand its importance, let’s start by looking at a local example.
By now you have probably heard that much of westbound I-696 in Macomb County will be closed this year as a major project will take out existing pavement, fortify the base, and repave the roadway. Thanks to coordinated planning, the other utilities that are in the right-of-way will also be looked at and replaced if needed. Once the roadway is repaved, no one wants to go back and address underground utility issues and disrupt traffic again.
Coordination of at- and below-grade infrastructure is an important efficiency that saves time and money, but we often take it for granted. In reality, the status quo has been that projects are selected by individual asset owners based on their specific criteria. Other impacted asset owners have to adjust their programs to coordinate improvements.
“Infrastructure” actually refers to thousands of individual systems
Over 3,350 entities manage Michigan’s infrastructure. Coordinated infrastructure planning and management lays the foundation to a successful future system. When implemented in a standardized and systematic way across infrastructure types and jurisdictions, asset management can improve coordination and significantly reduce costs and service disruptions.
In 2002, the Michigan legislature passed legislation establishing the Transportation Asset Management Council (TAMC) and ordered them to develop one process statewide to rate the conditions of pavements on Michigan’s public road system. A great deal of work has been done in the past 15 years to create a database of pavement condition for all major routes. More importantly, this data is being used by local agencies and MDOT in developing asset management plans to use the too-few dollars we have to maintain the road system in the most efficient manner we can.
However, the same approach to coordinating efforts has not previously been directed at Michigan’s underground assets, specifically drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater. Can we develop a process to do the same thing for the water infrastructure that lies underground and then relate it to the condition of the road above it?
The beginning of better coordination
The Governor’s 21st Century infrastructure Commission thought so and recommended that Michigan develop a comprehensive database system to coordinate planning and investment across infrastructure types at all levels of government. The governor asked SEMCOG and the Grand Rapids area to work together in this pilot to develop one process to locate underground utilities – drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure – and relate this data to the pavement condition data collected by TAMC.
The governor announced the results of the pilot and released the report on May 4th. Over 150 local units of government and agencies, including nearly 50 in Southeast Michigan, voluntarily participated in this effort by providing their water system data. We found that a great deal of data has been collected by local agencies, but it is collected in different databases that do not talk to one another. Very little of this data is currently related to the condition of the pavement above it. Over 50,000 miles of water pipe data was received from the participating communities and agencies and put into one mappable database that then was positionally related to the pavement data above it. Now, asset management plans can be developed while considering the current and future condition of the assets to develop more efficient processes for coordinating capital improvements.
In addition to offering a trove of information never before available in one place, the pilot project has reinforced some things we already know: we need to get out of our silos, communicate with each other, trust each other, and develop processes and procedures to work together to plan and develop better projects. This will ensure the least amount of disruption to people and business, while at the same time delivering the best project at the lowest possible cost.
This pilot engaged a wide range of communities and stakeholders to begin building a statewide culture of asset management. By understanding the varying conditions, personalities, needs, and nuances of our communities, we began to develop consistency in how we should approach statewide asset standards and practices. We believe this methodology will open the door for successful problem solving on a statewide level.
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