*2.3.5 Minimizing sustainable performance degradation*

It is often observed that sustainability concerns are usually centered to the facility's design and construction phases (rather than the operation phase) and once an infrastructure facility starts operation, the focus of its managers is maintaining its level of service at the expected quality and. This explains why the negative impacts of a facility on sustainability becomes more noticeable in the course of its service life. Another reason for sustainable performance degradation are populist managers who make decisions to pretend their attention to sustainability, while they refuse to accept the sustainability costs that people or media will not necessarily notice or appreciate.

Maintenance operations are primarily focused on replacements that can improve the serviceability or durability of a facility. Less attention is commonly paid to fixing the sustainability issues. Although infrastructure projects are often designed with careful examination of the potential impacts of the facility, due to the dynamic nature of the surrounding environment and other modifications in the facility in the course of its service life, many sustainability issues may arise when the facility is in operation. Managers have a critical responsibility to continuously measure and mitigate the sustainability threats of the project. Maintenance for sustainability can encompass low-cost activities such as eliminating the noise caused by displacement of a utility hole cover to more intensive maintenance such as restoring the vegetation affected by the pollution. The target is to maintain the infrastructure surrounding in such a way that the facility's footprint is almost none beyond its shell. This requires a specific focus in maintenance that is supported and pursued by the managers.

What makes maintaining sustainable performance more challenging are the changes in the management team. Different managers have different priorities in mind that can impact their determination for maintaining the facility's sustainability. A useful tool that can prevent underestimating sustainability in maintenance policies is developing a comprehensive long-term plan for sustainable performance that can be pursued by future managers. On the other hand, relying on old approaches inherited from previous managers is not helpful as the project's impacts, and the demands for environmental protection can change. The managers must, therefore, seek solutions for improvement while staying committed to the long term plans of sustainable maintenance.

#### *2.3.6 Extending service life*

The development of an infrastructure facility is often the product of the monetary contribution of a large number of taxpayers. Some of the infrastructure facilities also require a lot of compromises due to their adverse impacts, particularly on the environment. Therefore, it is crucial to make every effort to extend infrastructures' service life as much as possible.

A great deal of a project's service life depends on the quality of its design. Flexible design enables the project to respond to the variations in public's demand

**23**

**Figure 7.**

*Maintaining the Sustainability of Critical Infrastructure DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85915*

service life as a result of maintenance and rehabilitation.

ity's service life and must be avoided.

*protection*

from the facility, and the dynamic changes of the facility as well as the external factors it interacts with. The design must allow reconfiguration as well as refurbishment of the facility and minimize the need for demolition or replacements. Additionally, the design must establish a high resiliency in the facility to survive against the external pressures. Though, even with a perfect design, the facilities will gradually start to deteriorate. As can be seen in **Figure 7** [21], two main approaches can be applied to extend the service life of infrastructures, maintenance and rehabilitation. Both approaches primarily depend on budget and project condition. Maintenance is done in shorter intervals, and higher frequencies improve the asset condition [22]. When regular maintenance activities cannot effectively improve the asset condition, a rehabilitation or renewal activity must be pursued. This requires more time, budget, and effort but, as they can be seen in the graph, can more significantly improve the infrastructure condition. In this figure, the distance between the two parallel diagonal dotted lines on the x-axis indicates the added time to the

Facility managers must be mindful about a load of service on the facility even though it is below the capacity. A higher load of operation is linked with quicker deterioration. The manager should keep close attention to avoid over-production to lower the unnecessary load to the infrastructure. Setting various inspection intervals depending on the frequency of the need for repairs in different components of a facility is another helpful approach. Long inspection periods for all components is detrimental to effective maintenance which is geared towards extending the facil-

Although environmental protection is a critical goal of sustainable development, it is essential to understand that sustainability goes beyond environmental protection and involves social and economic goals. The establishment of this understanding is the responsibility of the managers. This can be challenging because understanding the potential threats to communities can be more complicated than figuring out the environmental threats. Some maintenance decisions may not have negative environ-

*2.3.7 Establishing the difference between sustainability and environmental* 

mental impacts, but they may be detrimental to the society or economy.

*Extending infrastructure service life through maintenance and rehabilitation/renewal.*

Here is an example of the necessity of paying attention to the social aspects of sustainability besides the environmental aspects. Consider a coal plant with a private access road that is far enough from a residential neighborhood. While

### *Maintaining the Sustainability of Critical Infrastructure DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85915*

*Infrastructure Management and Construction*

2.Waste management workshop for the team. There are a lot of potentials for effective management of waste and by-products in a maintenance project. Project-specific opportunities for reduction of waste, reuse, recycle, convert, or compost must be identified by the managers or their representatives. Laborers should receive adequate instructions about the firm's waste manage-

It is often observed that sustainability concerns are usually centered to the facility's design and construction phases (rather than the operation phase) and once an infrastructure facility starts operation, the focus of its managers is maintaining its level of service at the expected quality and. This explains why the negative impacts of a facility on sustainability becomes more noticeable in the course of its service life. Another reason for sustainable performance degradation are populist managers who make decisions to pretend their attention to sustainability, while they refuse to accept the sustainability costs that people or media will not necessarily notice or

Maintenance operations are primarily focused on replacements that can improve

the serviceability or durability of a facility. Less attention is commonly paid to fixing the sustainability issues. Although infrastructure projects are often designed with careful examination of the potential impacts of the facility, due to the dynamic nature of the surrounding environment and other modifications in the facility in the course of its service life, many sustainability issues may arise when the facility is in operation. Managers have a critical responsibility to continuously measure and mitigate the sustainability threats of the project. Maintenance for sustainability can encompass low-cost activities such as eliminating the noise caused by displacement of a utility hole cover to more intensive maintenance such as restoring the vegetation affected by the pollution. The target is to maintain the infrastructure surrounding in such a way that the facility's footprint is almost none beyond its shell. This requires a specific focus in maintenance that is supported and pursued by

What makes maintaining sustainable performance more challenging are the changes in the management team. Different managers have different priorities in mind that can impact their determination for maintaining the facility's sustainability. A useful tool that can prevent underestimating sustainability in maintenance policies is developing a comprehensive long-term plan for sustainable performance that can be pursued by future managers. On the other hand, relying on old approaches inherited from previous managers is not helpful as the project's impacts, and the demands for environmental protection can change. The managers must, therefore, seek solutions for improvement while staying committed to the long term

The development of an infrastructure facility is often the product of the monetary contribution of a large number of taxpayers. Some of the infrastructure facilities also require a lot of compromises due to their adverse impacts, particularly on the environment. Therefore, it is crucial to make every effort to extend infra-

A great deal of a project's service life depends on the quality of its design. Flexible design enables the project to respond to the variations in public's demand

ment policies and be motivated to contribute to it.

*2.3.5 Minimizing sustainable performance degradation*

**22**

appreciate.

the managers.

plans of sustainable maintenance.

structures' service life as much as possible.

*2.3.6 Extending service life*

from the facility, and the dynamic changes of the facility as well as the external factors it interacts with. The design must allow reconfiguration as well as refurbishment of the facility and minimize the need for demolition or replacements. Additionally, the design must establish a high resiliency in the facility to survive against the external pressures. Though, even with a perfect design, the facilities will gradually start to deteriorate. As can be seen in **Figure 7** [21], two main approaches can be applied to extend the service life of infrastructures, maintenance and rehabilitation. Both approaches primarily depend on budget and project condition. Maintenance is done in shorter intervals, and higher frequencies improve the asset condition [22]. When regular maintenance activities cannot effectively improve the asset condition, a rehabilitation or renewal activity must be pursued. This requires more time, budget, and effort but, as they can be seen in the graph, can more significantly improve the infrastructure condition. In this figure, the distance between the two parallel diagonal dotted lines on the x-axis indicates the added time to the service life as a result of maintenance and rehabilitation.

Facility managers must be mindful about a load of service on the facility even though it is below the capacity. A higher load of operation is linked with quicker deterioration. The manager should keep close attention to avoid over-production to lower the unnecessary load to the infrastructure. Setting various inspection intervals depending on the frequency of the need for repairs in different components of a facility is another helpful approach. Long inspection periods for all components is detrimental to effective maintenance which is geared towards extending the facility's service life and must be avoided.
