Ageing of Infrastructure

Professor Frank Collins

Professor Frank Collins is the Director of the Australian Centre for Infrastructure Durability (ACID). His role involves fostering collaboration between universities to streamline access by government and industry to the most relevant researchers and facilities for the durability of built infrastructure. Prior to his academic career, Frank's has had 19 years as a chartered professional engineer, which gives him a unique perspective on ageing of infrastructure. He worked for 13 years with Taywood Engineering Ltd in their London, Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne offices; involved with diagnosis and rehabilitation of infrastructure and applications of construction materials. In 1988, Frank was Lead Materials Engineer in the Sydney Opera House rehabilitation program which entailed diagnosis of the roof shell elements and substructure, and development of remedial and preventative maintenance works. In 1995, he established the Bridge Testing and Rehabilitation Unit within the Ministry of Transport, Vietnam, allowing the Ministry to become self-sufficient in the management of bridge assets. While technical director at AECOM (Maunsell) he established and managed the company's Advanced Materials Group, including technical and commercial leadership, and provided high-level advice on many international infrastructure projects.

As an academic since 2006, he has taken akeen research interest in the areas of durability and ageing of built infrastructure; utilisation of wastes as alternative construction materials; and improved construction materials for durable and stronger infrastructure.

Dr Frederic Blin

Frederic has over 18 years' experience as an engineer and is the leader of AECOM's Strategic Asset Management and Advanced Materials team in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. He has worked across industries (properties/facilities, transport and water) and brings a solid understanding of the importance of balancing asset lifecycle risks and costs to provide desired service levels to customers. He holds a materials engineering degree and a PHD in corrosion engineering.

At AECOM, Frederic is a Technical Director, who has worked on and led numerous projects in the field of asset management and durability/materials engineering. This has included the provision of technical support at the design, build, finance (including due diligences) and operation & maintain phases of the lifecycle of (particularly infrastructure-based) assets (e.g. parks, tunnels, ports, plants, buildings, roads and bridges).

Frederic's experience include condition and performance monitoring and evaluation, risk management and lifecycle decision frameworks and tools, maintenance and renewals forecasting as well as asset management business improvement.