Delivering major infrastructure projects is a complex and time-consuming endeavour that often spans several years, if not decades. However, the completion of a project is just the beginning of its lifecycle. The subsequent phase, known as operations and maintenance (O&M), involves ensuring that the asset functions optimally throughout its lifespan. 

And O&M contracts are now changing, with contractors being required to do more than simply maintain the assets condition but expand their focus to using data to improve efficiency, reducing a piece of infrastructure’s impact on the environment, and considering the social value the project is bringing to local communities.

These contracts have become increasingly prevalent across various industries, ranging from power plants and rail systems to hospitals and highways. Philippe Jean, senior vice president of operations for O&M at SNC Lavalin in Canada, manages a vast array of infrastructure projects and explains, “Our contracts would range from five years to 30 years, in some cases. So that’s what I do, I have a team, a great team, of about 1,100 people that make this infrastructure run every single day.”

Changing roles

In the past, O&M contractors were primarily responsible for maintaining assets in working order while minimising costs. However, the role has evolved significantly, driven by changes in the public private partnership (3P) model. Jean notes, “The contracts themselves are becoming more complicated… there’s a whole business around managing these 3P contracts. This complexity necessitates stronger partnerships and clearer delineation of responsibilities between asset owners and O&M contractors.”

Moreover, asset owners now expect O&M contractors to focus not only on performance and cost but also on reducing carbon emissions and improving climate resiliency. The question Jason Pavey, managing director of Atkins’ O&M business in the UK and Europe, says contractors and their partners should ask is, “How do we make sure the assets are maintained for that level of service, and what level of service do people need from an asset going forward?” 

Focus on sustainability 

It’s not just a focus on cost anymore: reducing carbon footprints and adopting sustainable practices have become paramount in O&M contracts. Jean explains that SNC Lavalin are actively seeking ways to optimise operations and reduce carbon footprints. For instance, they are exploring the use of electric vehicles for maintaining highways. This wasn’t something specified in the O&M contract, but an area where SNC Lavalin felt they could improve the carbon output of the partner organisation.

Approaching O&M with climate change in mind and carbon reduction as a goal means more than just making maintenance vehicles electric. It requires a serious financial commitment to developing new tools. Digital twins, such as the one developed for the Canada Line in Vancouver, play a pivotal role in optimising asset performance. With digital twins, O&M teams gain invaluable insights and can simulate repairs, making maintenance more efficient, which is particularly important for rail lines, “Because for commuter train systems, you only have four hours every night in order to do your maintenance, your repairs, etc. So we need to be as efficient as possible during those four hours. So stuff like digital twins and being able to see ahead of time if something works, or simulate a repair so that we’re more efficient during those four hours is key for us.” explains Jean.

This modelling can be used across many different sectors to predict maintenance. As Jean says, “For us, if we can optimise the life cycle, meaning that if the roof needs theoretically to be changed every 15 years, well, if we can stretch it out to 20 years, for example, and therein maybe avoid one cycle of replacement, because we’ve got a clever way of doing it through modelling through additional maintenance.”

Harnessing data analytics

Creating predictive maintenance tools requires large amounts of data being collected on the asset’s performance.

Pavey explains that often this data is already being collected, just not utilised correctly, “We’re utilising the terabytes of data that probably isn’t being used at the moment, [and asking] how do we better harness that to make sure we’re making the right decisions at the right time, and really optimising spend on the network.”

What Pavey and Jean have found is that making the investment on these digital tools, fuelled by large amounts of data, is worth it in the long run. “We can generate economies and maybe we don’t need the client. And when I say that, it’s that just the savings that we can generate as operations and maintenance are more than sufficient to justify building such a tool,” says Jean.

Social value and community impact

In addition to financial and environmental considerations, O&M contractors are now focusing on delivering social value to local communities. The Social Value Act in the UK emphasises the impact of infrastructure projects on local wellbeing and economic growth. 

Communities local to a major piece of infrastructure can face serious disruption, particularly during that asset’s construction, so it is important to ensure that the community also receives social benefits.

O&M contractors are urged to explore ways to create additional social value, although measuring and incentivizing this impact remains challenging.

Pavey suggests asset owners need to find ways to reward an O&M contractors’ performance on providing social value in some way, even if not financial, “I guess the challenge is, how do you set a contract that both encourages it and rewards it? And I don’t necessarily just mean rewarding financially, but it is perhaps about how you link that to extend contracts to have a different, longer duration based on performance.”

While it can be a difficult outcome to measure, Pavey believes that one crucial component of providing social value is having local expertise within the O&M team. “I think the balance of global reach and local delivery is absolutely essential. So, you know, particularly from an operations and maintenance perspective, you need people on the ground, who understand the asset that can engage with the client, strong communication skills, can really understand and be responsive for the particular asset locally.”

The world of operations and maintenance in the infrastructure sector is undergoing significant transformation. O&M contractors are no longer limited to maintaining assets; they are now responsible for reducing emissions, ensuring sustainability, and delivering social value to communities. The adoption of digital twins and data analytics allows O&M teams to optimise asset performance effectively.

By working collaboratively and investing in forward-thinking solutions, O&M contractors can drive innovation and bring real value to infrastructure projects. The impetus for this change is new thinking on the value of infrastructure projects, and how clients and O&M organisations are responding to that thinking.

Pavey says, “Value for money can mean lots of things to different clients, to different people. Is it the lowest price? Is it the best service? Is it a sustainable approach, including carbon, as well as customer service, and social cohesion, etc? So how do you measure it? And how do you value the worth of it? I think it’s key, but I think it’s for O&M organisations to help decode that for our clients, and particularly just showing the great examples of benefits that they can receive.”

As we move toward a more sustainable and socially responsible future, the role of O&M organisations will continue to evolve, reshaping the way we build, operate, and maintain critical infrastructure for generations to come.