Increased Emissions & Other Secondary Impacts Department Direct Expenses Environmental Resources Damaged Staff and Contractor Safety Activity Changes Unplanned Routine Cleanup & Maintenance Work Department & State Reputation Rehabilitation of Slopes Pavements & Structures Replacement and/or Resiliency Works Poor Reliability SPECIAL RISK :ISSUE Deep Foundations Risk – a View Through Asset Management Risk happens! This is a saying with which many are familiar. In the context of asset management, which is based on a holistic viewpoint or on the entire life cycle, this means that risk happens throughout an asset’s life. Decisions made by designers, contractors and owners will involve risk during design, construction and throughout ownership and operation. Some thoughts are offered in this article with respect to geotechnical asset management and from the perspective of a hypothetical trans- portation department (public agency). Geotechnical assets comprise the walls, slopes, embankments and constructed subgrades that contribute to the perfor- mance of the entire transportation system. Components, such as anchors, drainage features and foundations, are the improve- ments within some of these assets that help the asset function through routine loading and extreme events. Per the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), transportation asset manage- ment is a systematic process of operating, maintaining, upgrading and expanding physical assets effectively throughout their life cycle. A goal of asset management is to obtain the least life cycle cost. Most of us in the industry have some understanding of these key principles: life cycle and managing cost; however, these principles are of critical importance and have relevance that might not typically be considered. One key consideration in recognizing a life cycle is that everything has an end. All investments are finite with some time period associated with them, as nothing lasts forever; not a wall or its facing, anchorage or foundation, for example. Moreover, with respect to cost, the principles of asset management are applied to all costs and to all phases of the asset’s life from design through, theoretically, abandonment or demolition. In short, asset management is not just about the operation phase. Risk is generally defined as the product of the likelihood of an event (which is dimen- sionless) and its consequence, and this characterization works for asset management, too. For the life cycle of any geotechnical asset, there are numerous positive and/or adverse performance scenarios or events, and each has its own likelihood and range of consequences. Of course, within the construct of asset management, the consequences (and, therefore, the risk) can be measured well in units of cost (e.g., dollars). Undoubtedly, costs can be referenced back to design, construction and operation — direct costs to the agency and those contracted by it — but costs can also be in the form of indirect economic impacts to externalities to the system. Considering public infrastructure systems, indirect economic costs are a form of risk transfer that is typically borne by the public at large. Thus, from the perspective of asset management, risk exists through time, during all phases of the asset’s life cycle, and ends at some point — corresponding to the end of life of that asset, and the risk is shared among multiple parties. Interestingly, from an asset owner’s perspective, the indirect costs (and, therefore, the potential risk) can be substantially greater than the direct cost. In other words, the risk tied to direct cost activities (e.g., design and construction) can be a small part of an asset’s total risk. Indirect costs can be categorized into impact areas such as safety, mobility, freight efficiency and environmental consider- ations. These impact areas are also the Environment Social Impacts Economic Vitality Safety TOTAL RISK Mobility Maintenance Of System FEATURE ARTICLE Figure 1: Example goals and risk measures in geotechnical asset management for a transportation agency stated goals of most transportation agencies and, indeed, are part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (or FAST Act), the current U.S. legislation for the federal highway system, and is represented by the inner wheel of the graphic in figure 1. Therefore, in addition and with respect to asset management, risk is accumulated through multiple objectives. If all con- sequences are measured in costs, the accumulation of risk can be calculated by a simple summation. An example of the arrangement and delineation of repre- sentative goals and total risk for a transportation agency considering various performance objectives is presented in the graphic, where the inner wheel contains the goals and the outer wheel contains measures that can represent the achieve- ment of the goals. Not every measure can be reliably determined or is significant enough to include in the asset management plan; however, for those that are considered germane and significant, the measures AUTHORS Mark Vessely, P.E., Shannon & Wilson, Inc., and Scott Anderson, Ph.D., P.E., BGC Engineering, Inc. DEEP FOUNDATIONS • JAN/FEB 2018 • 69 Visual & Wildlife Impacts Delay Community & User Financial Losses Injury to Users Missed Life Cycle Cost Savings Direct Expenses Third Party Closure Detour Emergency Projects Fatalities to Users
