From left: Robert Jonsson, Annika Malm, Erik Karlsson, Rita Ugarelli and Tommy Giertz.
Creative discussions about the future, structures and holistic thinking characterised the start meeting for the project Synthesis of frameworks.
In the Mistra InfraMaint programme you will find 20 different projects, all of them important to achieve a smarter and more sustainable infrastructure maintenance.
But the project 2.5 Synthesis of frameworks has the task of coordinating and integrating the results from other Mistra InfraMaint projects and therefore has a key role. The project’s aim is to create a framework that both small and large municipalities can use.
“Structure and holistic thinking are required for good and efficient Asset Management. It is about balancing cost, performance and risk and doing it at a strategic, tactical and operational level”, says project manager Annika Malm.
One framework to fit all
Some municipalities are large, others are small. Some are rich while others are poor. Sometimes operations are run in corporate form. The big challenge of the project is to develop a framework that suits them all.
The project meeting began by discussing and learning more about maintenance models and existing tools such as DIVA, which is the result of a Norwegian research project today owned by Norconsult and Asplan Viak, and SUNRA, which is used by, among others, the Swedish Transport Administration and other European road agencies.
Municipal infrastructure functions are often good at solving acute operational problems. Water and sewer operators are, for example, good at repairing water leaks – but worse at preventative work.
– And unfortunately many in WS are inclined to switch piping and lines on a large scale instead of looking for leaks and reparations, says Tommy Giertz, Stockholm Water and Waste.
Fixing leaks is fun?
And if operational disturbances and large-scale projects are what triggers organisations, they must change.
“That might may be part of our role, as a research programme. We must help them to think that maintenance is as fun”, says Robert Jonsson, University of Linköping.
The kickoff resulted in a rough outline for the framework and interaction between the various projects. The results will now be developed further within the project.
The project meeting was held in Gothenburg March 7th.
The meeting was attended by Rita Ugarelli, Sintef, Yvonne Andersson Sköld and Mattias Haraldsson, VTI, Robert Jonsson, Center for Municipal Strategic Studies at Linköping University, Tommy Giertz and Erik Karlsson from Stockholm Water and Waste, as well as Gunn-Mari Löfdahl, Annika Malm and Maria Ljung from RISE.