Risk-based Infrastructure Management System

The Risk-based Infrastructure Management System (RIMS) is an award-winning, made-for-Edmonton tool that assists in the ranking of rehabilitation needs of the city and the allocation of renewal funds across the various infrastructure assets to ensure long-term value.

RIMS includes methods for simulating asset deterioration over time by incorporating various rehabilitation and renewal scenarios. It also enables the testing of various funding strategies so that Administration can see how certain funding levels impact infrastructure and can assess the status of infrastructure over a given time.

Performing scenario analysis using RIMS helps decision-makers make investments in infrastructure that will provide the most benefit, using the following scenarios:

• Do Nothing – gives asset managers an idea of how quickly assets will deteriorate without the required renewal intervention. 
• Budget Allocation – allocates a set dollar amount based on prescribed parameters to those assets that will require the most re-investment.
• Cost Minimization – provides the optimum renewal strategy to achieve or maintain certain performance levels of infrastructure.

These simulations provide the dollars required, the resulting condition based on the investment, the corresponding risk exposure of the asset, the percentage of assets that will remain in poor or very poor condition and the quantity of those assets affected.

This proactive infrastructure evaluation approach helps with decisions about repairs – what are needed, where and when – to keep rehabilitation and construction costs as low as possible. For example, RIMS is used in the allocation of grant funding, for the Neighbourhood Renewal Program, and in the City’s capital budget process, making the most of every dollar invested with the limited funding available.

Edmonton's RIMS, since its implementation in 2011, has gained provincial and national recognition for its innovation and leadership in infrastructure management. The system has won several awards, including:

• Consulting Engineers of Alberta - Award of Excellence: Small Firm-Big Impact Category (January 2013)
• Consulting Engineers of Alberta - Award of Merit: Studies, Software and Special Services Category (January 2013)
• Canadian Society for Civil Engineering - Award for Government Leadership in Sustainable Infrastructure (June 2012)