Join the Railway Technical Society of Australasia and Rudolph Kotze to discuss KiwiRail’s approach to developing a national Structural health-index based asset management system . This presentation is being held as a joint RTSA New Zealand meeting in Wellington and will also be broadcast live as a CORE Connect Webinar

KiwiRail, as the manager and operator of New Zealand’s national rail network, is dependent on reliable assets to support the goal of delivering profitable and cost-effective freight and passenger services. In order to achieve these and other safety-related organisational goals, asset, and risk management planning as well as accurate prioritisation of capital investment, it is necessary to ensure that the assets remain fit for purpose and operate within acceptable engineering safety limits. There must be an evidence-based, scientific way of managing the assets despite the shortfalls with the funding and other setbacks.

The KiwiRail Structures Team has developed a system-based method of assessing individual structures, unique in New Zealand, to provide a health-index based on a number of key risk criteria. It provides valuable information, not only for KiwiRail asset managers (regional and head office) to prioritise assets for regular maintenance, but also for stakeholders including contractors to obtain key information on each asset requiring intervention. In addition to the framework, through the application of field-mobility, condition data is now captured digitally and uploaded remotely to a central asset management system. Currently around 400 of the 1700 bridges on the KiwiRail network have been assessed and it is intended to be progressively extended to also cover tunnels and other structures.

Speaker: Rudolph Kotze, Professional Head Structures, KiwiRail

Rudolph Kotze is responsible for technical standards and strategy for KiwiRail’s structures. He also provides technical advice to the wider business and is focused on ensuing that best-practice asset and risk management principles are developed and implemented. He has been involved in bridge and structures design and asset management for over 30 years, working in various technical and management roles in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

When: Wednesday 4th November, 6pm -7pm New Zealand time ( 4pm-5pm AEST)
Where: Engineering New Zealand, Level 6, NEC House, Taranaki Street, Wellington and Online
Cost: FREE

Click on the link below to register (for those attending via webinar link will be shared once you have registered):