Between November 2021 and June 2022, the City of Adelaide worked with our community to better understand and measure levels of satisfaction for the services provided by our infrastructure assets.

The insights from the community were utilised to identify where current levels of service are not meeting the community’s expectation, to then enable recommendations to be made to Council regarding how our assets are managed into the future through the development of Asset Management Plans.

We have used the insights from the community to develop our draft Asset Management Plans and we asked the question, did we get it right?

The City of Adelaide is responsible for an extensive and diverse asset portfolio, which includes footpaths, playgrounds, public lighting fences and benches. Valued at more than $2 billion, which represents a significant investment made over multiple generations.

These assets play a vital role in providing essential services to our community and it is critical to ensure these assets continue to be effectively managed to enable ongoing service provision and benefits for both current and future generations.

Under South Australia’s Local Government Act 1999, we are required to develop Asset Management Plans for a period of at least ten years. The City of Adelaide has six Asset Management Plans, which include:

• Transportation
• Urban Elements
• Buildings
• Park Lands and Open Space
• Lighting and Electrical
• Water Infrastructure

In order to effectively manage our assets, it is important to understand the relationship between all stages of the asset lifecycle. Effective asset management and sustainable financial planning requires a balance between the maintenance, renewal and disposal of existing assets and the delivery of new and upgraded assets. Our goal is to provide assets that service the needs of the community, providing the agreed levels of service at the lowest lifecycle cost. To enable this, it is important to understand:

• How our assets are performing
• How our assets should be operated and maintained
• When our assets should be renewed
• When we should consider upgrading existing assets or constructing new assets
• How funding for new and upgraded assets is prioritised
• When we should consider disposing underperforming or underutilised assets

The fundamental purpose of each Asset Management Plan is to outline the Council’s high-level asset management priorities for the operation, maintenance and renewal of our existing assets over the next 10 years. Our Strategic Plan sets a vision for Adelaide’s future and identifies key focus areas that guide how new and upgraded infrastructure priorities are considered annually through the Business Plan and Budget.