Best Practices for Managing Municipal Infrastructure – A Coordinated Approach

• Speaker: Soliman Abusamra, PhD, PMP, ENV SP, Senior Project Manager, Corridor Fleet Replacement Program, VIA Rail Canada
• Time & Date: 14:10-15:30, Friday, September 16, 2022
• Location: CUI 219 (44 Gerrard Street East) – Map
• Zoom Link: https://ryerson.zoom.us/j/4612874120

Abstract

Infrastructure has a key role in determining the quality of people’s lives and is an instrumental ingredient to achieve economic growth. Over the past decade, aging infrastructure systems have been placing tremendous pressure on governments through steeply growing budget deficits and urgent need for replacement. According to Canadian Infrastructure Report Card released in 2019, one-third of Canada’s municipal infrastructure are in fair, poor and failing condition states, increasing the risk of service disruption, and leaving the decision-makers with no choice but undertake immediate interventions. Furthermore, recent studies estimated Canada’s infrastructure deficit at a range between $110 billion to $270 billion. In addition, the massive number of infrastructure intervention activities occurring in cities leads to detrimental social, environmental, and economic impacts on the community. Have you ever experienced the situation when the same road has been closed more than once in a very short time span? The lack of coordination results in increased service disruption for the users, less efficient expenditures’ utilization for the taxpayers’ money, higher cost of maintenance for municipalities with limited budget, etc. Thus, coordinating the interventions of the co-located assets (e.g. roads, water, and sewer) is progressively becoming paramount to cope with those tough challenges and enhance the infrastructure spending to derive the best value of money.

On September 16, Dr. Abusamra will present a coordination and optimization framework for managing the municipal infrastructure under performance-based contracts. The framework presents an integrated contractual and asset management solution to aid decision-makers in both the pre-contract and post-contract phases. He will also share some KPIs’ and case studies to highlight the value-added coordination can bring to municipalities and assets’ owners. Finally, he will share some insights on the role of digital technology on asset management and a roadmap for the years to come.

About the Speaker

Dr. Abusamra  (LinkedIn Profile, Google Scholar Profile) is a Senior Project Manager for the Maintenance Facilities Upgrades at VIA Rail. He has 10+ years of experience in the industry and academia across three continents. In Africa, he worked as a Cost Engineer at Gleeds Cost Consultancy mainly involved in quantity surveying, cost estimation, and claim analysis. In Asia, he worked as Project Controls Engineer at Consolidated Contractors Company in Riyadh Metro Project, a design-build rapid transit system (6 lines, 176 KM, 85 stations, $22.5 billion); where he was involved in construction supervision, progress monitoring, quantity surveying, BIM, planning, and management. In North America, prior to joining VIA Rail as a Senior Project Manager, he worked as a Manager in KPMG’s Global Infrastructure Advisory Team supporting various municipalities and clients in developing their asset management strategic and tactical plans. He also worked as a cost consultant at LCO Construction Consultant on several projects, most notably the REM project in Montreal. He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Concordia University, published numerous books, journals, and conference articles about asset management for municipal infrastructure and spoke in various public events (TED Talk, CBC, IAM, etc.). His key areas of interests are in Asset Management, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Twins, Optimization and Decision-making, Project Management, Civil Engineering, Highways, Condition Assessment, and Sustainability. He is a certified PMP, ENV SP, Lead Auditor – ISO 19011: 2018, OSHA certified, LCA Certified, asset management professional with extensive knowledge of ISO 55000 series. He is an editorial member and reviewer in top-ranked journals such as ASCE, CSCE, Elsevier, etc.