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Article in the latest edition of the "Transporter" about the new Transportation Asset Management Course available from NHI.

This report presents the results of a literature review of current practice in identifying, quantifying and managing risks and predicting impacts as part of the planning and assessment process for infrastructure investment proposals. In assessing proposals for investment in infrastructure, it is necessary to consider social, cultural and environmental risks and impacts to the overall community, as well as financial risks to the investor.

This Guide will help transportation agency executives or managers to examine, strategically and systematically, how investment decisions affecting transportation infrastructure are made, and to identify areas and priorities for possible improvement through initial and periodic self-assessment and benchmarking. It provides ideas, methods, and examples to accomplish more effective resource allocation and utilization. It does all of this by developing and applying the principles and practices of what is referred to as "transportation asset management." The Guide is structured in nine chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 define transportation asset management, provide background information on past work in the field, and develop a framework for asset management of transportation infrastructure that is appropriate to U.S. departments of transportation. Chapter 3 contains the self-assessment exercise that agencies can apply to identifying areas where asset management improvement may be helpful. Chapter 4 describes how to develop an asset management implementation strategy and plan, based on the results of the self-assessment above. It stresses that the role of the Guide is to help an agency shape its own asset management implementation plan, tailoring and customizing the principles and techniques in the Guide to its particular situation, capabilities, and expectations. Chapters 5 through 8 describe asset management concepts, principles, and techniques that apply to several agency functions in managing transportation infrastructure and decisions in resource allocation and utilization: Policy formulation; Planning and priority programming; Program delivery; and Information and analytic support, including the role of information technology, transportation system performance monitoring and feedback, and communication and reporting. Chapter 9 concludes the Guide with a discussion of implementation issues.

This Guide helps you to examine, strategically and systematically, how investment decisions affecting your transportation infrastructure are made. It helps you to identify areas and priorities for possible improvement. It provides ideas, methods, and examples to accomplish more effective resource allocation and utilization. It does all of this by developing and applying the principles and practices of what is referred to as “transportation asset management.”

The objective of this project was to examine how existing pavement management data and materials related data in various state DOTs can be used to evaluate the performance of new materials and concepts and to validate new design methods. Superpave was used as an example in this study. The project also studied the data collected by each agency to determine what was collected on a common basis, and how the data and data analysis can be better shared among agencies.

The sixth installment in the pavement preservation checklist series, focusing on joint sealing Portland cement concrete pavements.

The fifth installment in the pavement preservation checklist series, focusing on the procedure for microsurfacing application.

The fourth installment in the pavement preservation checklist series, focusing on the procedure for fog seal application.

The third installment in the pavement preservation checklist series, focusing on the procedure for thin hot-mix asphalt overlay.

The second installment in the pavement preservation checklist series, focusing on the procedure for chip seal application.

An increasing number of highway agencies have found that applying relatively low-cost surface preservation treatments can extend the service life of pavement. The Federal Highway Administration, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and National Cooperative Highway Research Program sponsored a scanning study of France, South Africa, and Australia to investigate innovative programs for pavement preservation. The U.S. delegation observed that the countries visited are committed to designing and building long-lasting structural pavement sections on their national roadway networks. The countries focus on road maintenance, using low-cost seals and thin overlays on surfaces to protect their investment in underlying layers, rather than on more costly rehabilitation. The scanning team's recommendations for U.S. application include developing demonstration projects using deep subbase and deep base roadway designs, testing innovative procedures to improve chip seal performance, conducting a best-practices seminar on long-term maintenance contracts, and evaluating pavement condition survey vehicles.

The objectives of this study were to gather information on asset management practices in the United States and overseas, develop a framework for transportation asset management, and apply this framework to produce the "Transportation Asset Management Guide." Phase I of the study encompassed information gathering, framework development, and recommendation of a research program. The products of Phase I have been issued in three separate volumes. This report constitutes the second volume, addressing a comprehensive transportation asset management framework. This framework defines transportation asset management within the context of this study, and establishes its basic concepts and elements. Its management approach is built on the idea that an agency's processes for resource allocation and utilization are at the core of asset management. Based on this concept, the report builds a framework for agency self-evaluation of its current and desired practices. This framework identifies key characteristics and criteria of transportation asset management in four basic areas relating to resource allocation and utilization: policy goals and objectives, planning and programming, program delivery, and information and analysis. State-of-the-art practices illustrate each of these characteristics and criteria to provide benchmarks by which agencies may establish targets for incremental improvement and gauge progress toward these targets. The report also discusses strategies for updating legacy management systems and data to better support asset management, and examines the relationship between transportation asset management and recently adopted standards for financial reporting of transportation infrastructure assets.