When it comes to managing infrastructure, risk management is one thing. But introduce the additional complexity that comes with heritage infrastructure and the risks increase exponentially. The stakes are high and that’s because there’s more attachment and emotion involved. There are likely more stakeholders than usual to engage in the project, meaning it also becomes a political exercise, to a degree.
Projects involving heritage listed or protected buildings and infrastructure need extra care, balanced with the already higher costs of managing a job like this with the delicacy they deserve. Automated monitoring presents an opportunity to capture critical, real-time data to manage the health of the structure, without blowing the budget.
Here are four key benefits, that will help to keep all stakeholders secure in the knowledge that the heritage asset is being well looked after throughout the life of the project (and beyond).
1. Automated Monitoring Helps Reduce Project Risk
The risks involved in managing structural projects that involve heritage assets are sometimes greater than the norm. Minor vibrations or deformation could cause sometimes catastrophic damage to heritage assets that a more modern structure would otherwise be able to withstand.
By implementing an automated monitoring solution, you’re ensuring that the asset remains protected, with an ability to identify issues that may turn into costly problems in near-real time. This means you’re able to respond faster and more effectively. Automated monitoring acts as a live, data-led ‘insurance policy’ to help you predict and mitigate risks to the asset.
2. Automated Monitoring Improves Safety
Similarly, automated monitoring solutions help to identify situations that could become detrimental to the safety of the team on site. Being able to detect the slightest variations to within mere centimetres degree of accuracy, means you can quickly respond and mitigate to ensure the ongoing well-being of everyone on site, as well as the ongoing structural health of the asset.
This limits the team’s exposure to high-risk environments, and in some cases, can help keep insurance premiums down, reducing a significant cost to the overall project without compromise.
3. Automated Monitoring Improves Communication Amongst Stakeholders
Communication among all project stakeholders is complex enough, without the additional pressure of preserving a piece of history for future generations to manage as well. Using a fully integrated and customised cloud-based system, automated monitoring solutions enable any stakeholder to immediately access the results and analysis of the asset’s structural health.
This added peace of mind helps to maintain confidence among stakeholders in potentially delicate situations. It also creates an opportunity for timelier cross-communication as well as smoother decision-making, using trusted and expert analysis as a basis.
4. Automated Monitoring Offers Greater Flexibility For Capturing Critical Data
Compared to traditional one-off surveying which can be invasive, costly and not always necessarily an appropriate scale for certain projects, automated monitoring offers the ability to scale up and down depending on the project need.
The ongoing data capture of automated monitoring over a once-off capture presents a more flexible option to meet the requirements of the project. Not only for state heritage asset management criteria and stakeholder management, but for budget and success of the project in question.
Automated monitoring systems create the opportunity to tailor the observation frequency based on what is needed at what point in the project. This means you’re able to invest across the life of the project for the critical points in the project to leverage the above-mentioned benefits, while still running a tight ship when it comes to budget.
Here at Monitum (powered by Land Solution Australia) we’re proudly innovating in automated surveying and geospatial data management.
Are you a structural engineer embarking on an important heritage infrastructure project that could benefit from automated monitoring? Give us a call today to talk about how our market-leading and highly innovative solutions can help.
See how we’ve applied this to projects we’ve worked on.
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