Working with the University of York, Gaist secured funding from the Technology Strategies Board to develop models to simulate deterioration of assets and enable what-if analysis with different maintenance options.

 

Gaist have worked closely with York University to develop the UK’s most advanced deterioration modelling system, which can predict and optimise maintenance requirements for carriageways and footways. The system also enables dynamic modelling of the lifecycle of a pavement’s core ‘parts’ such as surface course, binder course and road base and their interactions.

 

Gaist has worked with industry material experts to design a set of deterioration matrices that will chart the deterioration of various materials.

 

We are able to use data held by clients on local construction inventory and maintenance history combined with historical condition data to calibrate and validate models using formal statistical methods. This provides our clients with the confidence that the model reflects local characteristics and also enables them to meet validation requirements for UK Whole of Government Accounts audits.

 

The modelling and lifecycle tools allow users to instantly evaluate, using graphical outputs and reports, the long term effects of a particular funding scenario. Therefore, engineers can demonstrate the need for additional funding and the effect of under investment in real terms.

 

The system can produce long-term maintenance scenarios which detail the optimal treatment and associated cost to support whole of life management of the highways asset.

The system is the only one of its type in the UK that can report to the user the exact volume of materials that exist within an entire highways and footway network. This enables engineers to accurately model the gross replacement cost (GRC) of the whole network and measure in financial terms the cost of depreciation (that is used to calculate the Depreciated Replacement Cost - DRC).

 

By understanding the true value of the highways network engineers are more able to make a bid for ‘right-sized’ budgets and have the technical information to support their bids to budget holders.

 

The ability to be able to demonstrate the far reaching financial and social benefits of a strategic long term maintenance plan over an ad-hoc reactive strategy massively enhances the ability for engineers to overcome political barriers to increasing funding.