Asset Management

Multisector
Better Data + Better Processes =

Better Infrastructure Management Decisions

rom Portland, Oregon, and Saco, Maine, to 

Calgary, Canada, communities both large 

and small are realizing the benefits of implemultiple sectors, and make more informed choices

about investment strategies. With an AM approach,

optimal decisions are based on accurate data, 

economic analysis, and sound engineering. 

Choices are also supported by performance 

measures and performance-based goals.

“At the local level, cities are making decisions

that involve multiple sectors. Asset management

processes applied across the sectors result in 

innovations and greater efficiencies. Lessons 

learned from one sector offer practical advances 

that apply to another,” says Steve Allbee of EPA. 

While the individual asset types vary and different assessment techniques are utilized, the 

key AM practices and processes are the same 

across the transportation and water sectors.

F

menting multisector asset management (AM) processes and data tools. These tools can be used to

monitor, evaluate, and make more informed decisions 

about how to best maintain vital infrastructure sectors, 

including water, wastewater, highways, airports, and 

mass transit.

A new report available from the U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Highway 

Administration (FHWA), Multisector Asset Management Case Studies, looks at five cities in the United 

States and Canada that are applying AM across several sectors to better understand infrastructure conditions, consider the service requirements across
What Is Asset Management? Five Core Questions

More than just implementing a pavement management system or a wastewater management system, 

AM provides a coordinated approach to managing

infrastructure assets over the course of their entire

life cycle, thus improving performance, increasing

safety, and providing greater value to the community. The American Association of State Highway 

and Transportation Offi cials defi nes AM as a “strategic and systematic process of operating, maintaining, upgrading, and expanding physical assets 

effectively through their life cycle. It focuses on 

business and engineering practices for resource allocation and utilization, with the objective of better 

decisionmaking based upon quality information and 

well defi ned objectives.” The AM approach can help 

guide decisions as to what would be an effective 

mix of maintaining, repairing, renewing, or replacing 

components. “Being able to effectively manage all 

of our infrastructure assets, as a result of analysis 

of information from our management systems and 

consideration of routine maintenance, preservation, 

or replacement, is critically important in these troubling economic times,” says Butch Wlaschin, FHWA’s Director of Asset Management. As EPA notes 

in its Asset Management: A Best Practices Guide, 

“asset management is maintaining a desired level 

of service for what you want your assets to provide 

at the lowest life cycle cost.”

Whether a city or municipality is looking at highways, 

utilities, water, or other sectors, AM implementation comes 

down to asking fi ve core questions:

1.

4.

3.

2.

5.

What is the current state of my assets?

What is my required level of service/

performance?

Which assets are critical to sustained 

performance?

What are my best investment strategies for

both operations and maintenance and capital

improvement?

What is my best long-term funding strategy?

Cities and municipalities that have taken the lead in

implementing AM have discovered that answering

these questions provides the foundation for an AM

plan, which establishes what is working well, where

improvements are needed, and the type and quality

of information required to establish that an envisioned course of action is the best choice available.

“Asset management is the way to go,” says Michael

Bolduc, Public Works Director in Saco, Maine. This

city of 18,000 is applying AM principles across its

wastewater and transportation sectors.

“ Asset management processes

applied across the sectors result in

innovations and greater effi ciencies.

Lessons learned from one sector

offer practical advances that

apply to another.”
The Calgary Experience

An Asset Management Vision in 

Portland

Since 2004, the city of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, 

has operated a Corporate Asset Management 

Program (CAMP), which coordinates AM across 13 

infrastructure-related business units. These business 

units include water, waste and recycling, roads, utilities, 

and transit. Calgary began embracing the multisector 

AM concept due to its rapid growth, with its population 

increasing by more than 12 percent between 2001 and 

2006. The city recognized that it needed to balance 

its growth with infrastructure renewal needs, as the 

majority of its infrastructure was constructed from the 

1960s until the mid 1980s. Asset Management Plans 

(AMPs) are being prepared for each business unit, with 

a long-term goal of combining all of the plans into one 

Corporate AMP, which will provide both an integrated 

plan for how services will be delivered and a citywide 

infrastructure investment strategy. The AM program 

is used to better justify capital and maintenance 

expenses to elected offi cials and the public.

Calgary has realized numerous benefi ts in applying 

AM, including obtaining both more and better 

validated information on the condition of various 

assets. This information can then be used to make 

project prioritization and budget allocation decisions. 

Another key benefi t is the cost savings that are being 

realized. For example, the Water Resources business 

unit estimates that the AM approach to

replacement and rehabilitation decisions has already saved $30 million in 

capital replacement costs 

and averted $16 million in 

main break repair costs 

over the past 10 years.

Having used AM tools in its transportation sector for 

more than 20 years, the city of Portland, Oregon, 

began applying AM to its water and wastewater sectors just over the past 5 years. Although the city’s 

various sectors currently use different AM frameworks, the city supports collaboration among the 

sectors and focuses on better aligning frameworks, 

with the long-term goal of developing a city-wide AM 

plan. Portland’s AM program also involves managing parks, affordable housing, and civic facilities. 

The city uses the International Infrastructure Management Manual as a resource document.

Portland’s Bureau of Planning develops annual reports on the status and condition of the city’s physical infrastructure. These reports document the number of assets; their condition, replacement value, 

and current service levels; and the cost of unmet 

needs. The reports are presented to Portland’s city 

council at the start of annual budget work sessions. 

Starting several years ago, the annual reports have 

included confi dence levelscores, which serve as a 

rough assessment of 

the quality of the data 

used in the development of the report. The 

report also now includes 

an assessment of business risk exposure, 

intended to weigh the

probability of failure

 by the consequence of failure. The city council believes that these additions to the asset report have 

greatly improved the quality and usefulness of the 

report in the decisionmaking process. 

 Portland has recognized many benefi ts in applying AM principles, including creating a common language across the city’s various sectors.

What Can Asset Management Do for You?

With regard to the infrastructure challenges facing your community, an AM program will provide critical knowledge as to 

your community’s assets and their condition. This knowledge will enable you to make better decisions and. when necessary, 

justify budget request for maintenance and needed improvements Ultimately, a multisector AM program will help infrastructure 

managers, elected offi cials, and community members focus on achieving the “triple bottom line” - communities that are 

socially desirable, environmentally safe, and economically sound far into the future.
Resources

More information about how communities both large and small are implementing multisector AM is available in 

Multisector Asset Management Case 

Studies. The case studies were published jointly by EPA and FHWA and 

are available online at www.epa.gov/

owm/assetmanage/index.htm or at 

assetmanagement.transportation.org 

(click on Topic Area b., “Innovations 

and Success”).

For additional information about multisector AM, contact Steve Gaj at FHWA, 

stephen.gaj@dot.gov, or Steve Allbee 

at EPA, allbee.steve@epa.gov.

U.S. Department

of Transportation

Federal Highway

Administration

United States

Environmental Protection Agency

of Transportation

Publication No. FHWA-HIF-09-022