Appia’s second Asset Management Training day was held in Doncaster on the 7th September and was a resounding success, having been moved to a larger venue to accommodate demand for places. With attendance by many Local Authorities, national construction firms and commercial engineering consultants feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive, and with numerous comments made about the professional attitude and technical competency of all the Appia staff, and the quality and value of the presentations from a number of acknowledged experts in their fields.
In the first session, Peter Davidson gave an update on the development of Appia services and products and of Scheme Engineer and announced that in future TRL and Appia will be working closely together, drawing upon the expertise of TRL as a world-renowned transport research organisation to enhance Scheme Engineer® and Appia’s capabilities in areas including:
- Deterioration Modelling
- Depreciated Asset Valuation
- Integration with existing TRL Products
- Whole Life Costing
- Environmental Aspects & Carbon Modelling
Peter Davidson (Appia) and Barry Cleave (TRL)
The day continued with informative and practical presentations, with topics including:
- The innovative work that Appia and Nottingham City Council are doing to enhance Asset Valuation
- Doncaster’s approach to Scheme Selection taking account of LTP, LIP, HAMP in order to ensure Council Values are met
- Achieving Service Levels and Performance Targets for HAMP, PFI’s and DBFO’s
- Ensuring Lifecycle plans are met using correct material specifications
The day concluded with a Question and Answer session, and with feedback from users on their priorities for future enhancements of Scheme Engineer and Appia’s other products.
Stephen Child and Stacy Smith (Appia)
Stephen Child, independent consultant and chair of the ADEPT Soils and Materials Design and Specification group, facilitated throughout the day and kept the speakers to time and subject with good humour He summed up the day with the statement:
“One year on and another Appia training day is over. If you are using Scheme Engineer or interested in it in anyway you should have been there. Firstly it was an excellent day, well organised, good venue and good attendance and participation. It was however a real eye opener on the world of Scheme Engineer, it was certainly evident that few clients understood the breadth of capability in Scheme Engineer that now exists in the hands of Appia staff. Asset management is a vital piece of the highway management puzzle and most think that Scheme Engineer takes a bit of condition data and allows you to ascertain “schemes”. Not any more as with modules for surveys, mapping, data processing and video collection as well as the original Scheme Engineer the capability has grown exponentially.
Of course the day was about Scheme Engineer but it was in the context of what it can do for you and what you can do with it, at times during the day I think even Appia staff were amazed at just what it was achieving! All the sessions were valuable however I will select two simply because of the Client content. It is easy for Appia to talk and present Scheme Engineer and all the ins and outs of what it can do. It was very refreshing to hear from colleagues at Nottingham and Doncaster about what they were actually doing and how it was helping deliver their highway management business. In Nottingham it was about asset valuation whilst in Doncaster it was the use of value management beyond simple condition requirements that caught the attention.
The tools that were described and shared during the day should certainly help Authorities operate an asset management regime that delivers real benefit and helps get the most from limited resources. I look forward to next year to see what developments have been made.”
We were encouraged with the very positive feedback from many of the attendees:
“Enjoyable and very informative”
“Very thought provoking”
“Impressed with Appia Staff”
“Quality Information”
Our thanks go to TRL and Mouchel, and to all of the speakers for their lively and informative contributions.