Since 2009, the course “Infrastructure Asset Management” has been given to students of the master programme Construction Management and Engineering at the University of Twente. The focus of this course is on the life-cycle management of infrastructure assets. The course provides the basic concepts and tools to procure and preserve infrastructure systems most cost-effectively. It shows how to prevent costly infrastructure deterioration and ensure an acceptable performance level of infrastructure. The course covers developing effective maintenance and rehabilitation strategies for portfolios of infrastructure assets and the planning and procurement of single maintenance and rehabilitation projects. It particularly addresses the dynamic relationship of economic, organisational and quality issues during the infrastructure life cycle.
Part of the course is a role-play to let students work on infrastructure management issues. The students are asked to put themselves in two roles: the role of a province responsible for the management of road infrastructure and the role of an engineering firm supporting the province. There are several assignments the students in their role as engineering firms had to work on. In their role as provinces, they have to give feedback on the assignments of their peers. The assignments include:
- formulating possible objectives for the management of the road bridges and suggesting a measurement system that can determine whether the objectives have been achieved;
- prioritising road bridges for interventions;
- investigating failure modes, causes and consequences of road bridges;
- determining the deterioration of road bridges;
- determining intervention strategies with the best cost-benefit ratio for the bridge stakeholders and which are in line with the objectives formulated for the bridge;
The course also includes several serious games that allow students to apply their knowledge and experience the complexity of infrastructure management decisions.
Two serious games played