How Do I Maintain My New Garden Building

How Do I Maintain My New Garden Building ?

• To maintain the quality and appearance of your building we recommend that you retreat any exterior wooden parts within 6 months of installation, and then annually after that. We recommend using Cuprinol 5-Year Woodstain which is available in a range of colours.
• Regularly oil any moving parts such as locks and door or opening window hinges.
• Keep an eye on the condition of the roofing felt. If it starts to deteriorate, replace it with a good quality replacement - if water starts to seep into the roof, this is the beginning of the end for your building.


Infrastructure Maintenance Management System (IMMS)

1. INTRODUCTION

To meet the infrastructure management challenges of the 21st Century, the Maintenance Administration of the Kuwait Ministry of Public Works (MPW) has realized that using state of the art technologies and modern management techniques, including geographic information systems, is a must. Consequently, the Maintenance Administration (MA) has launched a massive and comprehensive program to implement a nationwide integrated infrastructure management system. The system will help ensure that limited maintenance funds are targeted to priority needs and that the infrastructure is maintained in the most cost effective manner over the long term.
The Maintenance Administration set the following requirements for the system:
• Computers would be used for data storage and analysis to allow management to accurately and quickly assess the performance of infrastructure components, identify maintenance requirements, establish prioritv programs and plan short-term and long-term budget needs in a fully integrated manner at the national level.
• A Geographic Information System (GIS) must be a component of the overall svstem to provide integrated analysis and maintenance planning on a nationwide basis.
• State-of-the-art equipment would be used to evaluate
• the condition of the infrastructure components.
• The system must ensure full coordination between MPW maintenance programs and the programs of other ministries to avoid any potential conflicts.

2. BACKGROUND

The Maintenance Administration is responsible for maintaining the national highway network, storm water drainage system, all bridges and the nation's sanitary sewer network. The Administration also handles the maintenance of government buildings and the installation and maintenance of highway traffic signs.
The highway and local street network is over 5,000 km in length of which about 350 km are freeways. The network contains more than 250 bridges and storm and sanitary sewer networks of about 5,000 km each.
MPW follows a general strategy in which maintenance work is carried out through contracts awarded to the lowest bidders. The maintenance contracts cover the country's five governorates. Roads and sewers are maintained under separate contracts.
Maintenance programs are executed by issuing work orders under each contract. Every work order covers a specific location and is executed during a predetermined time period. Work items covered under each work order are estimated on the basis of a detailed site investigation carried out by Maintenance Administration staff. Payments are made to contractors based on the work accomplished.

3. PROJECT TEAM

In order to keep track of the progress of the project, the accomplishments of the consultant and to ensure that MPW personnel will be fully capable of operating the acquired system at the end of the two year effort, a Maintenance Administration project team was formed.
In-house technical committees and work groups have been formed to coordinate with the consultant, ITX Technologies, and to follow up on their work. Project technical advisors with extensive experience with the operations and policies of the Maintenance Administration were selected to act as coordinators between the in-house work groups and the consultant. Their role includes helping the consultant better understand the decision making process within Maintenance Administration so that the system is developed in a manner that meets MA's needs and local conditions.
It was realized that training is crucial to the future operation of the completed system. Therefore, a comprehensive training program was made an integral part of the project. Training is planned to cover field data collection as well as sofrware operation and data analysis. In addition to on-site training, the program includes site visits to maintenance departments operating similar systems in both the US and Canada.

4. GIS INTEGRATION

GIS is a critical component of the KIMMS. The GIS provides a spatial index to all the infrastructure components and relates them to a common geographic base. It not only provides answers to basic location questions (e.g., where are the all the sewer pipes with a diameter greater than 500 mm), but also to more complex spatial queries (e.g., locate and display all those street segments to be rehabilitated within the next six months that have sewer line replacements planned within the next year). The GIS is linked to the KIMMS infrastructure inventory and work management data bases. This allows maintenance personnel to develop integrated maintenance programs that take into account the spatial relationships between different types of infrastructure.
The GIS allows for coordination between MPW and other Ministries and for different work groups within MPW. Before work is started in an area, the GIS can be used to determine comprehensively what infrastructure is there and where it is located. In addition, since the KIMMS links the maintenance history and plans to the map base, work planned in an area can be coordinated between different Ministries and work groups to be sure they don't conflict and are done in the proper sequence.
The GIS can be used in an operational mode to graphically select particular infrastructure elements for maintenance and have work orders automatically generated for those elements selected. The condition and performance of various infrastructure can be displayed for analysis and presentation.
KIMMS will use the ARC/INFO GIS on a UNIX server and ArcView on LAN and remote workstations.

5. KIMMS COMPONENTS

The KIMMS is made up of a number of components integrated together on a common system platform. The components share a common user interface and are tightly linked at the data base level through a client/server approach. Each component is also linked to the GIS to allow for graphic display and selection.
The following is a brief description of each KIMIMS component:

5.1 ROADWAY SYSTEMS

The Roadway Systems include the Pavement Management
System (PMS), Bridge Management System (BMS) and
Right-of-Way Features Management System (RFMS).
5.1.1 Pavement Management System (PMS)
The PMS provides for a comprehensive inventory and condition assessment of the Kuwait road network. The module provides for maintenance and rehabilitation analysis and the development of priority programming.
The PMS includes a comprehensive pavement database of:
Sectional attribute information
• section location and ID number
• pavement length, width and number of lanes
• pavement layer thickness and type
• sub-grade characteristics
• traffic volumes, content and Equivalent Single Axle Loads (ESAL's)
• drainage consideration, curb/gutter, shoulder information, etc.
Performance information
• roughness, deflection, distress and skid resistance
Maintenance history data
• rehabilitation work - (e.g., overlay and type) cost, contract date, etc., and
• mauntenance work - (e.g., crack sealing) cost, contract date, etc.
The PMS also includes network analysis capabilities based on:
• smoothness of ride provided to users.
• ability of the pavement structure to carry the current and anticipated traffic loadings.
• the occurrence of pavement defects, deformation and cracking; the extent of each and the level of severity.
• safety aspects resulting from skid resistance evaluation.
The pavement condition information is used to develop an overall Pavement Cuality Index to allow for objective comparison of one section versus another, or as the basis for current status summaries and tuture performance prediction.
Network-wide rehabilitation programming can be developed for up to 10 years in the tuture. The system identifies the sections in need of rehabilitation and the most cost-effective strategy to consider for each, based on the financial parameters provided by the user. An optimum plan and priority list is then determined for a specific budget.
The MPW Pavement Design Manual which was developed in Kuwait to suit local conditions was used for overlay design purposes within the PMS.

5.1.2 Bridge Management System (BMS)

The BMS is a management tool which helps to organize and implement all activities related to bridge maintenance, replacement and rehabilitation programs. The BMS assists decision makers by:
• Maintaining all bridge inventory information
• Defining bridge conditions
• Identifing bridge needs
• Identifying tunding requirements for Maintenance, Replacement and Rehabilitation (MR&R) programs
• Identifying and prioritizing bridges for MR&R
• programs
• Identifying bridges for assessment
• Finding cost-effective MR&R alternatives for each bridge
• Recommending MR&R strategies
• Accounting of MR&R strategies
• Scheduling minor maintenance and inspections through the Work Management System (WMS).
• Monitoring and rating bridges, and
• Maintaining the appropriate database of information.
The comprehensive database of the BMS stores information on every bridge in the network and includes:
• Structure Identification - number, location, type and name
• Rating - according to local loading conditions
• Environunental - precipitation and frequency
• Strategic Importance - importance and vulnerability
• Engineering Criteria - loading, type of construction and year, traffic volumes by year, specd limit, length/width, clearance, etc.
• Safety Criteria - approach width, weight limit, skew, sight distance, illumination, number of accidents, etc.
• Secondary Information - historical significance, and
• Condition - roadway approach, super-structure, substructure, intermediate supports, channel rating, estimated remaining life, etc.
A prioritized listing of bridge maintenance and"or rehabilitation programs can be developed on an annual basis for a ten year period. The budget or schedules can be modified on a "fix when need arises" basis.

5.1.3 Right-of-Way Features Management System (RFMS)

The RFMS addresses all "features" included in the streets "right of way and typically includes: traffic signs, pavement markings, traffic signals, guard-rails, trees, vegetation, slopes, ditches, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and other roadway features..
The RFMS outputs include condition, priority lists of work, and location details complete with costs that are provided through the Work Management System (WMS). The outputs can also be input into other systems (i.e. PMS) to identity peripheral activities such as the costs required to totally rehabilitate/maintain all features within the limits of a section. In conjunction with the WMS, the system will automatically establish inspection schedules.

5.2 UTILITY SYSTEMS

The Utility Systems modules include the Sanitary Sewer
Management System (SANS) and Storm Sewer
Management System (STMS).

5.2.1 Sanitary Sewer Management System (SANS)

The SANS provides information management, performance and condition analysis capabillties that evaluate the true level of "need" for a sanitary collection system through a series of engineering models. In this way, the Maintenance Administration managers can easily monitor and predict the sanitary sewer system maintenance levels and rehabilitation requirements.
The SANS provides network analysis capabilities on a pipe by pipe basis, through condition/performance assessment based on the following parameters:
• Structural Condition - considers the structural condition of a sanitary sewer system based on digital defect surveys utilizing closed circuit television cameras (CCTV).
• Environmental Impact - considers the impact of extraneous flows caused by major rainfall events on the social and physical environment (basement flooding, sanitary sewer overflows to natural water courses, etc.).
• Conformance to Standards - considers a sanitary sewer's conformance to present engineering standards (i.e. minimum pipe size, minimum slope).
• Strategic Importance - considers the impact a pipe failure would have on the public.
• Maintenance - considers the sanitary sewer's operational efficiency based on observed indications of potential high maintenance (i.e. roots, debris, grease).
This information is blended together to generate a Quality Index which reflects the combined needs of each section of the sewer network.
The SANS establishes a benchmark for tracking the rate of structural deterioration of a sewer network. When combined with the WMS, performance feedback can also be provided, allowing operational expenditures to be more effectively planned to meet projected needs. Using the system outputs, multi-year optimum priority programs for a predetermined set of annual budgets can be developed. Mternatively, annual budget requirements can be determined to effectively maintain and rehabilitate sanitary sewer networks.

5.2.2 Storm Sewer Network Management System (STMS)

Similar to the SANS, the STMS provides information management, performance and condition analysis capabillties for storm sewer networks as well as defined open channels.

6. SYSTEM INTEGRATION

Inherent in the design and implementation of the KlMMS is the identification of a common systems platform that can support and bind together the various component system features required. The KlMMS provides for a common user interface across all its components (PMS, BMS, RFMS, SANS and STMS) and a tight linking of the data base through a client" server approach, The Work Management System (WMS) and the Mapping Module are the two major system integration components upon which the KIMMS integration is built.
The WMS is "activity based" and supports the day-to-day work deployment and work performance analysis requirements for the KlMMS component systems. The mapping module provides a common spatial user interface to all component systems (PMS, BMS, RFMS, SANS and STMS) and addresses all the spatial data management issues including links to external geographic information systems, such as ARC/INFO and ArcView.
A description of these two major system integration modules upon which the KlMMS is built is as follows:

6.1 WORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (WMS)

The WMS is a core component of the KIMMS. Each of the component parts of the KlMMS (PMS, SANS, STMS and RFMS) are linked to and operate with the WMS. Projects created by each component part of the KlMMS may be transferred to the WMS. WMS is then utilized to order the work, assign contractors and/or in-house crews, track the schedule of the work and track the cost of the work against standards and/or budgets. When the work is completed, this information is transferred to the appropriate KlMMS component system so that the list of pending projects can be adjusted.
The WMS provides for monitoring, analyzing and optimizing daily maintenance and operational activities carried out by various maintenance crews responsible (in- house or contract) for the roadway and utility systems. It issues the work orders, payment certificates and other forms meeting the requirements of the MPW.
The WMS consists of the following key modules which are discussed in detail following:
• Program Planning
• Work Order Management
• Historical Management

6.1.1 Program Planning Module

The purpose of this module is to assist MPW Operations personnel in the development of maintenance programs for scheduled (preventative) and unscheduled activities as well as to schedule periodic inspection activities

6.1.2 Work Order Management Module

The purpose of this module is to track and report on the work performed, resources used and activity status on all infrastructure. The module manages both scheduled and unscheduled work activity.
Work orders are generated for user defined groups or as individual work orders for each component or structure or for a collection of components through the assembly of projects. Work orders may be cross-referenced to addresses, street names, cross-streets, maps, etc. This module also produces paynuent certificates and other documents related to the work.
Work order related information can be accessed from the inventory screens for each component structure. The work order information that can be displayed includes:
scheduled or preventative maintenance, unscheduled maintenance, open work orders and work order history.

6.1.3 Historical Management Module

The purpose of this module is to provide controlled archiving of the work order data as well as to summarize key structure related data such as repair orders or test results. This information is stored on-line for subsequent use by the various infrastructure condition analysis modules as well as for summarizing work performed by various contractors and/or work crews.

6.1.4 WMS Linkage to Maps

The WMS is also linked to the mapping system so vital information may be collected and displayed including:
• Accounting of work performed on a particular part of the infrastructure;
• Accounting of all costs incurred in the maintenance and/or rehabilitation of each individnal part of the infrastructure;
• Automatic updating of the attribute and/or condition records indicated on the map.

6.2 GIS/MAPPING MODULE

In order to fully utilize the KlMMS along with it's individiual components (pavement management, bridge management, right-of-way management, sanitary sewer management, storm sewer management and work management), the system is integrated with the ARC/INFO and ArcView GIS sofiware to provide a "smart" map capability.

6.2.1 Spatial Data Management (SDM)

SDM involves the establishment and management of unique identification procedures for each of the individual component systems (i.e., pavements, bridges, sanitary, storm, etc.).
Network Definition tables and linkage procedures are established to facilitate the analysis of multi-utility characteristics. The results of these analyses can be viewed as map displays using the ArcView GIS.

6.2.2 Geographic Information System

Each of the individual infrastructure components are linked to the KlMMS GIS. An ARC/INFO GIS, residing on a UNIX server, is used for map maintenance and for producing cartographic quality plots. The ArcView desktop GIS, residing on client workstations, is used to support day-to-day operations by providing map query and display capabilities to the MPW offices distributed throughout Kuwait.
Available infrastructure inventory and attribute data from existing map bases such as the Kuwait Data Information Management System (KUDAMS) have been electronically ported to the KlMMS to serve as base attribute information. In addition to the existing utility spatial files, a center line file has been generated and linked for
mapping access and thematic display of pavement and other infrastructure information. The KLDAMS right-of- way and edge-of-pavement coverage were used to generate the center line file. As condition data is collected and analyzed, it is linked to the KlMMS GIS.
Therefore, both physical attribute and condition information for each infrastructure type can be viewed using the ARC/INFO and ArcView for each part of each component of the infrastructure system. Through the integration process, all of the components may be viewed on one map so that integrated projects may be developed for maintenance and rehabilitation of the infrastructure.