Infrastructure management plans updated

THE City of Greater Geelong has updated two of its key documents that chart how its extensive infrastructure portfolio will be managed over the coming years.

Councillors has adopted the Asset Plan 2025–35 and the reviewed Municipal Road Management Plan at their meeting last month.

Together, the plans outline how the city manages and maintains its asset portfolio that includes more than 3,300km of road segments, 2,400km of footpaths, more than 150,000 drainage assets, 850 buildings and more than 200 hectares of open space.

The city’s asset portfolio is valued at more than $6 billion and includes infrastructure essential to the delivery of 31 community services across more than 1,200 hectares.

The Asset Plan 2025–35 sets out a strategic approach for managing, maintaining, and renewing our assets to support the city’s long-term vision and community outcomes, in alignment with the Council Plan.

Its key outcomes include:

* Identifying assets and their attributes

* Understanding how assets support the delivery of community services

* Committing to maintaining assets in line with the Long-Term Financial Plan 2025-35

* Spending necessary capital to meet asset renewal, acquisition, upgrade and disposal planning requirements, and

* Measuring the performance of assets.

The Asset Plan also incorporates community-endorsed asset management principles such as prioritising multipurpose buildings, renewing existing assets where possible and investing in natural assets.

The city is the co-ordinating road authority for about $2.1 billion of road infrastructure assets, and the reviewed Municipal Road Management Plan details how often the city will inspect roads and footpaths, what defects are repaired, and the timeline for repairs.

The review of the plan has resulted in several changes in the maintenance standards for infrastructure where the city is the co-ordinating road authority.

The council reviewed and adopted the previous version of the plan in 2021.

Following community workshops held in late 2024, the updated plan includes revised standards for inspection frequencies, defect intervention levels and repair timelines.

Geelong mayor Stretch Kontelj said the two plans reflected the council’s commitment to responsible asset stewardship.

“It is crucial to make sure we’re investing wisely, maintaining performance standards and aligning our infrastructure decisions to meet the needs of our growing and changing community.

“We provide 31 vital community services, and we need to take care in how we maintain, renew and invest in the assets that allow us to deliver those services.”