Retaining Wall Assessment and Prioritisation

The attached paper shares the assessment and prioritisation philosophy created for approximately 1000 Christchurch City Council retaining wall assets within the Port Hills in Christchurch. Following this assessment, a prioritisation score was developed for each wall which was used to select and prioritise the repair of 440 walls that were included in the SCIRT rebuild programme.

The paper includes lessons learnt during the early data collection stages with the collation from various sources of earthquake damage investigations; the importance of quality asset information, particularly the completeness and standardisation of key data; and the benefits of data management through a centralised, readily-accessible electronic database. These learnings will assist Road Controlling Authorities and Councils in managing their assets, and illustrate the importance of early data capture in preference to during the challenging times of a post disaster event.

The principle of fully understanding your assets can be applied to all businesses managing assets worldwide.

“Assessment and Prioritisation of the retaining wall rebuild in Christchurch after the 2010/2011 Canterbury Earthquakes” was presented at the IFME World Congress on Municipal Engineering and IPWEA International Public Works Conference, 7-11 June 2015.

Glossary terms:

• RAMM – Road Assessment and Maintenance Management
• IFME – International Federation of Municipal Engineering
• IPWEA – Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia