Comprehensive Transport, Bridges and Major Culverts Revaluation

The Challenge

Council required a comprehensive revaluation to support its financial reporting obligations and ensure its asset and financial registers remained accurate, consistent and compliant with relevant Australian Accounting Standards, including AASB 116 and AASB 13 Fair Value Measurement.

For a large transport asset class, the challenge was not only to meet compliance requirements, but to ensure the valuation reflected the true condition, replacement cost and future renewal needs of Council’s roads, bridges and major culverts.

Council also had access to RACAS® road network data, creating an opportunity to use this information beyond valuation and strengthen future asset management, renewal planning and maintenance decisions.

The Solution

SHEPHERD undertook a comprehensive revaluation of Council’s transport, bridges and major culverts asset class.

This included a full condition assessment of Council’s latest available RACAS® road network data, providing condition insight across Council’s road network, including sealed and gravel roads. For other assets within the Roads class, SHEPHERD applied a sampling approach using RACAS® imagery, RACAS® Mobile, ESRI Field Maps and on-foot inspections.

SHEPHERD also reviewed available Council information, including bridge inspection reports, maintenance data and other supporting records, to ensure assets were valued appropriately.

Key services delivered include:

• Comprehensive revaluation of transport, bridges and major culverts

• Development of unit rates for road components including sealed surfaces, sealed pavements, sealed formations, unsealed pavements and unsealed formations

• Development of unit rates for bridges and major culverts

• Revaluation of more than 5,400 transport-related assets, with a total current replacement value of more than $665 million

• Condition assessment using Council’s RACAS® data

• Sampling condition assessments of bridges and major culverts for valuation purposes

• Use of RACAS® Mobile and ESRI Field Maps to support efficient field assessment

• Review and incorporation of available Council asset and condition data

• Incorporation of DRFA acquittal photos to inform post-construction road condition

• Use of SHEPHERD’s specialised valuation software to support consistent calculations, built-in error checking and standardised outputs

What We Did Differently and Why It Mattered

Rather than treating the valuation as a desktop compliance exercise, SHEPHERD combined multiple sources of evidence to provide a more complete and defensible view of Council’s asset class.

Using RACAS® data allowed Council’s road network condition to be assessed consistently and efficiently, while field inspections and sampling provided additional confidence for bridges, major culverts and other road assets. This created a stronger link between condition data, financial reporting and future asset management planning.

SHEPHERD also developed detailed unit rates for each road component and benchmarked regional construction costs by engaging with neighbouring shires where relevant. This was particularly important for a large and varied asset class, with more than $665 million in current replacement value across sealed roads, unsealed roads, bridges and associated transport assets. This provided useful context when discussing changes in replacement costs with auditors and helped ensure the valuation reflected realistic construction conditions in regional New South Wales.

Throughout the project, SHEPHERD worked closely with Council to test assumptions, review methodologies and ensure the final valuation provided an accurate representation of the transport, bridges and major culverts asset class.