Although more than 50% of UK construction expenditure is now attributable to refurbishment projects, maintenance and repair is still the poor relation in the construction sector. Yet proper maintenance and lasting repair of an asset over its life is one of the most difficult technical challenges facing the industry today. Increasingly, industry is being asked to predict whole-life expenditure profiles for an asset, such as for private financing. In short, tomorrow's asset managers need to be “deteriorologists”, who understand why infrastructure assets of various kinds fail over the service life. The future can unlock many of the difficult issues through training, research and development; but we will first have to overcome the negative attitudes about maintenance and repair that pervade the industry.

  • INTRODUCTION

  • THE LESSONS FROM THE PAST

  • WHAT THE FUTURE BRINGS

  • CONCLUSIONS

  • ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  • REFERENCES

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