A Review of the Core Functionality of UKPMS

Full Report              Overview Presentation

Local highway authorities require pavement information and decisions systems to support the management of their transport infrastructure assets in the delivery of their transport objectives. The purpose of this study was to produce a core specification to replace the existing UKPMS specification as the minimum functionality that all Pavement Management Systems (PMS) should embody in future to meet the evolving needs of UK-based local highway authorities, and the national government, for local roads.

Local authorities need confidence that the systems they use for asset management will store, analyse and report on the data consistently and accurately. This is to ensure that asset management decisions and financial information reports are correct. They need a nationally consistent approach to pavement asset management systems wherever the results have to be compared between authorities or combined across a wider area. In addition to this, authorities are often required to justify their recommendations, decisions or actions. These systems help them demonstrate that professional judgement has been applied in the context of nationally agreed guidelines, or approaches, and adapted to local needs.

The review has been completed and a range of recommendations and conclusions provided as a result. An overview presentation explaining the review is an simpler way to familiarise with the concepts discussed in the full report. This report determines the priorities and produces a rationale for the commonality of PMS functions across local authorities and systems, taking account of the increasing importance of an asset management approach. It sets out the proposed core functional specification and maps its implementation to an indicative timetable and budget, taking account of where the costs are likely to fall and the ability of the market to deliver. It identifies where there are gaps or techniques that would benefit from further research.

Whilst this review was ongoing, a consultation workshop was conducted on 17th February 2009, the presentations from which are available below.

Presentation 1: Welcome (Barry Cleave, TRL)

Presentation 2: The Project (Ro Cartwright, Independent Consultant)

Presentation 3: The Business Needs (Andrew Gallagher, TRL)

Presentation 4: What a Good PMS Offers (Ro Cartwright, Independent Consultant)

Presentation 5: The Core Specification (Andrew Gallagher)

Consultation questionnaire sent out by TRL