Our Approach to Asset Management

This section provides the following information:

  • Our long-term, sector-leading approach to improving asset management
  • Explaining how we use asset management in our planning, decision-making, and delivery
  • Supporting Scottish Government outcomes and priorities
  • The scope of activities necessary for effective asset management - the Asset Management Framework
  • Our continuous improvement programme

We maintain and operate our trunk road network in the most effective way by consistently balancing:

We achieve this by implementing an asset management approach which helps us deliver value to our customers.

Asset management is a systemic way of enabling us to undertake the right activities, at the right time, for the right reason. For a long time, we have adopted an asset management approach to managing our network, based on international best practice, and learning from other asset owners in the transportation sector. Our approach was certified to the ISO 55000 Asset Management standard in 2019, becoming the first UK national road operator to achieve this.

Our recognised good practice in asset management is achieved through formally setting out our aims and priorities in a way that is understandable for our customers and provides direction and guidance for our teams to develop the appropriate process, capability, and support tools. We do this by defining the following key items which we will explain in the following sections:

  • Alignment with Strategic Outcomes – how we align with the values, aims, priorities, and objectives of Scottish Government
  • Asset Management Framework – the scope of our activities we do over the life cycle of our assets
  • Asset Management Objectives – our key aims which enable planning, prioritisation, and delivery of our activities
  • Asset Management Improvement Programme (AMIP) – a structured prioritised programme of improvements which measures the effectiveness of improvements, and identifies and incorporates lessons learned

Alignment With Strategic Outcomes

To deliver operations and maintenance effectively for the trunk road, our long-term approach, planning, and the activities that we undertake regularly need to actively support both Scottish Government and Transport Scotland’s priorities.

The National Transport Strategy (NTS2) (‘Transport Scotland’s Purpose’) sets out a long-term ambitious vision for transport nationally to deliver our priorities of protecting our climate and improving the lives of people in Scotland. This provides the transportation commitments and support to delivering the national policies and objectives.

NTS2 details a range of priorities, commitments, and desired outcomes to enable a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system, helping deliver a healthier, fairer, and more prosperous Scotland for communities, businesses, and visitors.

The Second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) is a long-term plan for transport investment in Scotland. It supports delivery of NTS2 by identifying necessary changes, recommendations, and benefits for the entire transportation infrastructure including the trunk road network.

We use these priorities, commitments, and outcomes from NTS2 and appropriate recommendations from STPR2 to form the basis of our Asset Management Policy and Strategy, setting out a long-term approach to operating and maintaining the trunk road network to consistently support these wider priorities.

Our Asset Management Policy and Strategy details our asset management framework which defines the scope of our activities, and the asset management objectives which define our key priorities. It provides the approach for the trunk road network to achieve the most efficient outcome possible. This Road Asset Management Plan sets out how the Asset Management Policy and Strategy will be delivered across our trunk road infrastructure assets.

Aligned Asset Management Approach for Scottish Trunk Roads

Figure 2‑1 below details how we successfully align our trunk road network asset management approach with Scottish Government policies, and objectives, and Transport Scotland documents that set out strategic direction for transportation.

Figure 2-1: Aligned Asset Management Approach for Scottish Trunk Roads, as described in following text
Figure 2-1: Aligned Asset Management Approach for Scottish Trunk Roads

National purpose and plans to be implemented by governmental departments:

  1. Update to the Climate Change Plan 2018-2032
  2. Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-2026
  3. Scottish Biodiversity Strategy to 2045
  4. Programme for Government
  5. Climate Change: Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029

Transport focused strategies and plans to deliver the National purpose and plans:

  1. National Transport Strategy (NTS2)
  2. STPR2 – Transport Plan to deliver NTS2
  3. Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030
  4. TS Approach to Climate Change Adaption & Resilience
  5. TS Carbon Management Plan 2022-2027
  6. Corporate Plan 2024-2027

Road asset management strategies, plans and technical guidance and direction:

  1. Roads AM Policy and Strategy
  2. Roads Asset Management Plan (RAMP)
  3. Customer Care Strategy
  4. Operations and maintenance contracts
  5. Technical guidance

Asset Management Framework

Our Asset Management Framework outlines the scope of our activities, processes, and procedures required to assess, develop, deliver, and continually improve our asset management approach. It reflects our alignment with Scottish Government outcomes, the requirements of our customers (Appendix E) and our legal commitments (‘Transport Scotland’s Legal Authority and Key Obligations’).

Figure 2-2 displays the activities undertaken as part of our Asset Management Framework supported by asset management data and systems including, planning our delivery, delivering service, managing performance and improving our service.

Figure 2-2: Asset Management Framework, as described in text before
Figure 2-2: Asset Management Framework

Planning our delivery

Our long-term network management and asset infrastructure planning, established through our understanding of the needs, requirements and technical knowledge of our assets through surveys, inspections, and engineering knowledge. This enables us along with our national policies and priorities to determine our strategies and plans to maximise the benefits to our customers.

Delivering service

To keep the trunk road network safe, available, its assets in suitable condition, and our customers informed, requires the co-ordination of all our teams and supply chain.

We use established processes, procedures, technical standards, and guidance documents to enable delivery to the highest standard possible. This includes meeting our environmental and sustainability requirements, and minimising disruption to the trunk road network.

Managing performance

We manage our risks through a process of identifying, assessing, and prioritising to develop mitigation plans for our planning and delivery. We monitor our performance through targeted measures for our operations and maintenance delivery and wider business support to government policies.

Improving our service

We invest in our people and their capabilities and are committed to continual improvement through our overall asset management approach through the AMIP identifying areas, activities, and capabilities for improvement.

Asset Management Objectives

Our Asset Management Objectives reflect our responsibilities and commitments to deliver our Asset Management Policy and Strategy. They are aligned with governmental policies, NTS2 priorities and the Programme for Government commitments (The programme for Government Commitments: Programme for Government 2025-26: Building The Best Future For Scotland). Our objectives enable planning and prioritisation on how we undertake our activities and are as follows:

We will provide a network that is safe for all customers, integrating our Safe Systems approach, and seeking to continually reduce risk and casualties.

Resilient Network

We will work to provide a network that is accessible to all. We will enable the movement of people and goods, support economic growth, and minimise disruption caused by maintenance, unplanned incidents and severe weather conditions. We will provide up-to-date, reliable travel information.

Sustainable Purpose

We will manage our network sustainably, considering the needs of future generations, through supporting our net zero, climate change adaptation, and biodiversity commitments.

Active and Healthy Communities

We will encourage healthy travel choices and pursue design and maintenance practices which improve the sense of community in cities, towns and villages across the nation, making Scotland a great place to live.

Condition

We will maintain the condition of our trunk road network at an appropriate level: balancing affordability with safety, resilience, sustainability and the promotion of active and healthy communities.

The condition of our assets provides forms the foundation of our service delivery. If our assets are not maintained affordably cost-effectively and kept in an appropriate condition, our objectives cannot be achieved.

Asset Management Improvement Programme (AMIP)

Our AMIP has enabled long-term asset management improvement through a prioritised programme of activities to support operations and maintenance (Figure 2‑3).

This has enabled significant improvements in:

  • Publishing our aims, strategies, and plans
  • Aligning our operations and maintenance contracts to our asset management objectives
  • Development, implementation, and management of our asset management software suite
  • Data quality improvement
  • Measuring the performance of our activities
  • Skills and capability improvement for our teams.

AMPS Note: AMPS provides access to data to align our activities to deliver the Asset Management Objectives.

We assess our current capability against recognised best practice and any changes in requirements from our customers, organisational structure, or to the policies, aims or objectives our framework supports to determine capability improvements that are needed. Our overall performance against this programme is measured as detailed in ‘Managing our Performance’

We have a regular cycle of audits of our activities within the asset management framework using the requirements of the international ISO 55001 Asset Management standard, best practice in the roads sector, and our asset and technical knowledge. The audits include assessment of the lessons learned from the delivered programme including a benefits assessment from each task delivered within the programme to determine its success or where additional work is required. Our audits identify areas of improvement to develop a prioritised programme of improvement activities that can be shared with our customers.

The AMIP provides:

  • Details of current asset management maturity, including capturing areas of good practice and innovation
  • A robust, deliverable improvement programme, that aligns its strategic asset management principles and activities with NTS2

Figure 2-3 below shows the sequence of activities that are key to the delivery of the AMIP to achieve increased AM capability and realisation of benefits), including measuring progress against Asset Management best practice (through gap analysis and key improvements), prioritising key improvements (through a defined programme of activities), and continuous improvement as the driver.

Figure 2 3: Asset Management Improvement Programme, as described in text before
Figure 2 3: Asset Management Improvement Programme