11 research outputs found
Waterway Asset Management And Optimization Of Maintenance And Engineering Investments
No full textWaterway asset management is a holistic multidisciplinary approach for the development, maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement of waterway assets based on a comprehensive life cycle costing approach. According to common practice river navigation is only shut down in times of extreme weather conditions (floods, extensive ice formations) but not at low-water conditions. In comparison to passenger transport which faces almost no further restrictions the goods transport is especially sensitive to low water levels and resulting lower fleet utilization. In order to ensure continuous and satisfactory fairway conditions throughout the year, which can be considered as basis for competitive transport prices, a number of recommendations and international agreements (e.g. AGN 1996, DC 1988, DC 2013) were established in the past. However, if available fairway depths are not included in the analysis, possible economic consequences on shipping companies and shippers are neglected. To overcome such setbacks of current approaches the presented asset management is based on the availability of fairway width and depth in days per year. With an infrastructure model of waterways including locks, ports and the navigational fairway the impact of various operational measures (e.g. dredging or shifting of fairway trajectory) or structural measures (e.g. river engineering structures like groyns or training walls) on availability can be simulated. The approach also includes a determination of necessary measure extent and duration of measure impact if selected quality criteria of the affected infrastructure fall below predefined limits. The concept of life cycle costs of waterway infrastructure as a part of the provided asset management approach is integrated as well by considering measure costs per unit together with the duration of measure impact. In order to provide a continuous fairway quality all shallow sections of the entire river have to be considered in the optimization process. As a result of possible measures the availability performance of individual sections is pushed outward beyond predefined fairway target parameters. For a manual maintenance optimization the availability curves are shifted outward starting with the most critical sections until the budget is spent. For an automated optimization the necessary budgets for different combinations of available width and depth have to be calculated leading to a 3D - cost surface. Together with the resulting transport costs it is possible to optimize with regard to recommended fairway parameters, a constrained budget or minimal total costs of inland navigation. The paper provides all necessary theoretical information, formulas and examples for a successful implementation of an LCC - based inland waterway asset management system together with practical references of already achieved results on the Danube
Transport Economics And Impact Of Waterway Asset Management On Availability And Competitivety
No full textEconomic development is closely linked to the demand of transportation and the supply of transport infrastructure. From 1995 to 2007 the total freight transport in the EU increased by 2.6% per year on average and was expected to grow 1.7% per year until 2030. However, in the same period freight transport on inland waterways increased only by 1.5% and is expected to grow by 1.0 % per year based on the European Energy and Transport Trends to 2030 (2007). As a result the market share of inland navigation dropped from 4.0% to 3.5% from 1995 to 2007. Despite the fact that investment needs per tonne-kilometre are considerably lower compared to any other mode of transport only a fraction of actual (re-)investment needs are met. The main infrastructural setbacks of inland navigation e.g. on the Danube are a lower availability and utilization of possible loaded draught during low water periods as well as a limited amount of transport - affine bulk cargo and bidirectional utilization for this linear mode of transport. Possible bottlenecks arise especially in form of short stretches of shallow or narrow locations resulting in a limited navigability on the entire Danube. Therefore, even optimized fairway maintenance works and sufficient reinvestments on national river stretches will not yield the targeted results (e.g. AGN 1996, DC 2013) if just some of these bottlenecks will remain - e.g. due to a lack of resources or political and environmental restrictions. Waiting times as a result of oncoming traffic at narrow bottlenecks of a few minutes as worst case scenario are negligible in their cost-effectiveness compared to transport durations of one to three weeks. To compete successfully in the transport market IWT must be able to offer favourable transport prizes throughout the year. Through a high utilization of transport capacity, transport cost consisting of fixed and variable costs per ton can be distributed on a higher amount of goods leading to decreasing unit costs. Due to the high amount of fixed costs on the one hand, including standby costs incurred by provision of the vessel fleet and costs for pre- and end haulage, that have to be considered particularly for transport chains, and distance related comparably low variable costs on the other hand, IWS can exploit their advantages especially for long transport distances and bulky cargo. The paper provides an overview of transport costs for road, rail and inland navigation depending on utilization and transport distance on the transport market in Europe. With special emphasis on the vessel fleet on the Danube the impact of different levels of fairway availability on loaded draught and resulting transport costs are discussed. Based on an in depth research on all main cost factors of inland navigation it can be concluded that the necessary utilization of the vessel fleet to stay in the market ranges from 55 to 60 %. The paper concludes with an analysis of impacts of improved transport conditions on market shares in Europe in general and the possible prospects for different development scenarios in inland navigation
Asset Management Organisation And Policies For Inland Waterways
No full textFor transportation stakeholders the factors reliability, availability, cost-effectiveness and sustainability are fundamental for investment decisions. Due to historic, political and economic reasons inland waterways in the Danube region face the challenge of a resource patchwork, fragmented legitimacy and low effectiveness of maintenance measures leading to a declining importance of this mode of transport. The bottleneck in providing a continuous fairway quality differs from country to country and can be related to a number of budgetary, logistic, environmental and legal reasons. Furthermore, the incentive for providing sufficient fairway conditions differs as well e.g. due to the fact that the main shipping industry may be located in only a few riparian countries whereas the maintenance works have to be paid by all. In addition to different standards of hydrographic measurement and processing of basic data, the communication with customers does not match the state of the art without a comprehensive cross-border information portal that provides all the necessary information on a daily basis. With fairway availability in days per year regarding fairway depths and width as most critical factors just one bottleneck on the entire transport route is enough to limit the draught loaded of the actual vessel fleet and thereby the resulting competitiveness of navigation companies on the transport market. Maintenance strategies of respective riparian countries which are not coordinated may lead to under spending in one country and overspending in other countries. As an obvious result of such a "prisoner's dilemma" the recommended fairway parameters cannot be met by the means of one continuous waterway leading to an inefficient use of funds and unfavorable losses in market shares of Danube navigation. But even if the recommended fairway parameters could be met it would still be a matter of trust regarding the provided information of different waterway authorities leading to lower utilization and higher transport costs in practice.
The paper provides an overview on the current situation on waterway maintenance on all riparian countries on the Danube together with a comprehensive analysis of current bottlenecks and specific improvement potential. In addition, an organizational and budgetary framework based on a holistic waterway asset management system is provided which could lead to substantial improvements. With a determination of necessary funding on the one hand and guaranteed efficient use of these funds on the other hand a solid base for an efficient use of subsidies is provided. A central Danube waterway authority funded by all riparian countries with budget sovereignty being in charge for providing harmonized and guaranteed fairway conditions could therefore be an important step towards one single inland waterway. With funding national stakeholders as supervisory board it would be likely to achieve results that could benefit all participating parties and deal with disagreements on an appropriate level. If such an approach would receive additional funds from the European Union based on a rigorous quality assurance of investments for the common good the incentive for providing sufficient results would be even higher for all riparian countries
Performance based waterway management - transport market and competitiveness
No full textInland waterways have a high transport capacity at very low costs of transportation and comparably lower external and infrastructure investment costs. Despite those facts inland waterways lost shares on the transport market due to a resource patchwork with considerable uncertainties regarding availability of fairway parameters among other factors. On the Danube corridor in Austria the average transport dis-tance for inland navigation is rather long with 1.040 km compared to road (50 km) and rail (220 km). Due to their linear structures one single bottleneck on the waterway with insufficient loading depth will limit the utilization of the entire transport fleet. For typical goods and vessel types on the river Danube 1,0 cm of additional loading depth results in 7 to 14 t of further goods capacity.
With variable loading depths leading to an aver-age utilization of 55 to 60% on the upper Danube and 50 to 55% on the lower Danube inland naviga-tion was not able to use its potential. Based on the developed cost model for goods transport on road, rail and waterway it can be shown, that inland navi-gation with the current utilization will be cheaper compared to truck transport for typical import, ex-port and transit distances exceeding 500 to 800 km. However, compared to rail transport the competition is closer depending on the type of goods and proximity to the mode of transport. Currently, inland navigation has slight advantages over rail in a catchment area of 50 to 200 km around the river Danube, but faces a number of challenges.
Without considerable and concerted efforts lead-ing to substantial improvements and new invest-ments in this mode of transport both from the side of waterway authorities and the transport industry the actual development will be far off from overly opti-mistic projections advertised in numerous papers. In-stead, there will be short to medium term stagnation followed by sharp decline at the time when current equipment and structures need to be replaced.
With the presented holistic multidisciplinary ap-proach for maintenance, rehabilitation and replace-ment of waterway assets based on a comprehensive life cycle costing approach it is possible to address the issues of harmonized and effective investment strategies in a high availability of the waterway Danube. The presented transport cost framework sets a basis for a sound assessment of possible impacts of improved fairway conditions on market situation and further development compared to other modes of transport
Derivation of budget requirements for different levels of fairway quality based on harmonized maintenance strategies for inland waterways
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A new asset management approach for inland waterways - A holistic waterway management as a basis for high availability and cost-effective and sustainable investments in waterway infrastructures
No full textCurrently inland waterways face a resource patchwork, fragmented legitimacy and low effectiveness leading to a declining importance compared to road or rail. To overcome these setbacks the presented comprehensive asset management approach is based on the availability of fairway width and depth in days per year. With a 3D - data model of the riverbed and navigational fairway the impact of maintenance measures on availability can be simulated. Any resulting increase in continuous availability leads to lowered transport costs. The approach allows an optimization regarding recommended fairway parameters, constrained budgets or total costs. Based on periodic riverbed surveys, water levels and amount of discharge the impact of maintenance and engineering works can be analysed. Innovative alert systems on critical bottlenecks allow preventive measures and lead to real time availability information for the industry. The presented asset management approach is currently being implemented on the Austrian stretch of the Danube and may be extended on the entire waterway in the future
Performance based waterway management - maintenance strategies and LCC optimization of measures
No full textThe Danube as European inland waterway currently faces a slowly declining importance compared to other modes of transport. A resource patchwork, low availability and effectiveness of investments are driving factors for this trend and form a major challenge for inland navigation. Cargo transport on in-land waterways will only be competitive in comparison to other modes of transport, if sufficient fairway parameters are provided on entire transport routes. Currently there are a number of international agreements and recommendations (AGN, DC1998, DC2013) setting ambitious targets for common min-imum fairway parameters (width, depth, days per year). However, due to political, technical, environ-mental and economic reasons necessary fairway maintenance and river engineering works on the Danube are not implemented resulting in unsatisfactory fairway conditions compared to these targets. To overcome these setbacks a new waterway asset management approach aiming at an increased availability of fairway width and depth in days per year was developed. This new holistic multidisciplinary approach for the development, maintenance, rehabil-itation and replacement of waterway assets is based on a comprehensive life cycle costing approach. Based on periodic riverbed surveys, current water levels and discharge the impact of maintenance and river engineering works on the availability of fairway widths and depths can be modeled allowing a calculation of real time availability for the transport industry. Innovative alert systems based on an empirically derived backfilling behavior of critical bottlenecks after measures allow a determination of timing and an efficient measure implementation. On an entire transport route only a continuous increase of available fairway loading depths may lead to an efficient allocation of investments leading to decreasing transport costs that may be considered as benefit of implemented measures. Results of the research indicate that only concerted actions on a transnational level of all waterway authorities and stakeholders under a common strategy will lead to efficient investments. The implementation of such a harmonized common strategy together with an im-plementation of necessary maintenance and river engineering works will be crucial for inland navigation and can be described as overarching goal for the future of the river Danube as competitive mode of transport in the heart of Europe. The presented wa-terway asset management system WAMS takes a first steps towards this goal and is currently being implemented on the Austrian stretch of the river Danube.
The current paper provides an overview of the methods for a calculation of fairway availability together with first results for an actual section of the Danube in Austria. Furthermore possible measures to improve availability are introduced together with an indepth description of implementation and opti-mization of dredging measures. In addition, an algo-rithm for an optimization of all measures not only for individual sections but the entire Danube is given. This algorithm allows an optimization for constrained budgets or recommended fairway parame-ters as well as total costs both for waterway measure and transport costs
