Strategic Asset Management for Physical Infrastructure: Run, Repair, Refurbish, Replace

Physical infrastructure assets are more than the sum of their components or the services they deliver. They are capital intensive to build or replace and are essential for economic development. Eventually the question of aging physical infrastructure assets becomes central to an asset manager and strategies evolve for ensuring continued effective operations and reliability of service. Asset managers responsible for physical assets are interested in making effective decisions about relevant capital or operational investments. These strategic decisions usually involve competing projects in an environment of finite human resources and capital. This project looks at theories of asset management relating to physical infrastructure and presents a strategic decision support process as a model for comparing and ranking strategic alternatives. The model presented enables the asset manager to compare and optimize strategic choices, evaluate financial implications over the long-term and consider corporate and operational risks in decision-making prior to funding commitments.