Development of an asset maintenance program for Darwin City Council

Abstract

Darwin City is a small tropical city situated in the Northern Territory. The City Council population is 75852 covering approximately 70 square kilometres. Within this area there is an extensive network of civil infrastructure. One major task of Council is to maintain these assets at a service level satisfactory to the community. To do this there needs to be understanding of what the assets are, the service levels they are required to meet and their current condition. This project explores the ways to optimise the current processes and to create more efficient programs that integrate multiple assets where possible. The assets to be focussed on are road surface and pavement, kerb and gutter, footpaths and driveways. There are many opportunities to optimise the way in which surveys are carried out and programs created for infrastructure assets at DCC. Surveys are carried out every four years on roads, driveways and footpaths, with kerb and gutter not being inspected. Currently only road surface and footpaths are programmed with the program duration being four years for footpaths and ten years for road surfaces, which is updated with new data input. There are three outcomes to be addressed in this project, they are; - Develop existing asset maintenance plans for roads, kerb & gutter, footpaths and driveways, - Investigate and comment on the current levels of service , and - Improve the condition survey programs to ensure all relevant information is collected on all asset. The programs for all assets have been developed for the 2009/10 financial year works as much as possible. The recommendations and processes discussed will be used to further optimise the programs at Darwin City Council