Amsterdam opts for risk-based maintenance tunnels

For the past four years, ÆVO has been responsible for maintaining the technical installations of the oldest tunnel in Amsterdam, the IJtunnel.  When the municipality put the maintenance of the IJtunnel, the Spaarndammertunnel, the Michiel de Ruyter tunnel and the Amsterdam Traffic Control Center on the market in a single EMVI tender, ÆVO also tendered again.

And with success. This relatively small service provider from Hoofddorp gets to work for Amsterdam (again) for the next four years. In addition to sustainability, risk-based maintenance was a theme of the EMVI.

Corné van Dravik, director of ÆVO, is obviously pleased with this new contract. "This shows that our added value is seen. As a total organization we have a focus and vision on maintenance and service, with our fellow competitors, often large civil contractors, this is usually somewhat less the case. This regularly results in a winning bid in our competitive field.  While working with the City of Amsterdam on the IJtunnel, we learned a lot from each other and are now going to take the next step together."

Failure Mode Effect & Criticality Analysis.

ÆVO will optimize the so-called risk-based maintenance for the tunnels for the IJtunnel and accelerate its implementation for the other structures. Marco Schepens, maintenance engineer at ÆVO: "Our risk-based maintenance is based on FMECA, Failure Mode Effect & Criticality Analysis. Here we break down the tunnel installations into the most important components. Based on existing knowledge and historical data, we look at how a component can fail, what the effect of that failure is, and how that effect can be mitigated with the right maintenance.  can be mastered. This is an iterative process. Failures are evaluated. If they occur more frequently than usual, we may have overlooked something and then we adjust our analysis accordingly. Each time, we ask what the current maintenance strategy and maintenance requirements are and whether they still fit with the measures needed to reduce probabilities and impacts. The ultimate goal is to get the probability of failure as low as possible."

Cost-conscious maintenance

In doing so, ÆVO keeps a close eye on costs. Van Dravik: "We do cost-conscious maintenance. Where we can do with less maintenance, we substantiate it to show that it involves little extra risk. With critical installations we look primarily at the risks; with less critical installations we look first at the costs. We make these considerations together with the municipality because together we can best make this assessment. We from a technical perspective, the municipality from the impact it has on society."

The coming months will be used by the municipality and ÆVO to further shape the recently expanded cooperation. Schepens says: "This client shows a lot of commitment, takes everything very seriously and also clearly frees up budget for the optimal functioning and safety of their critical infrastructure. We enjoy working with that and a good risk-based maintenance policy emerges."