AASHTO TAMG

Description / Abstract: Foreword: The Guide is designed to help agencies develop and apply the principles, techniques, and tools that can advance the management of their transportation assets.

The overall management framework that has been developed in this study is flexible enough to be adapted and refined for use with, respectively, each type of transportation agency asset listed above. To develop the depth as well as breadth of material needed to build a meaningful first-edition Transportation Asset Management Guide, however, the scope of this study has focused on the particular set of assets that constitutes an agency's transportation infrastructure. This concentration enables asset management principles, methods, examples, and research recommendations to be developed in a concrete, practical, and understandable way. It facilitates comparisons with corresponding work by transportation agencies overseas and by the private sector, which have for the most part adopted a similar scope in their studies. It provides a specific frame of reference within which differences among state departments of transportation (DOT) can be addressed by particular business management models, approaches, and procedures.

This study therefore interprets transportation asset management as a strategic approach to managing physical transportation infrastructure. Transportation asset management in this context promotes more effective resource allocation and utilization based upon quality information. This concept covers a broad array of DOT functions, activities, and decisions: e.g., transportation investment policies; institutional relationships between DOTs and other public and private groups; multimodal transportation planning; program development for capital projects and for maintenance and operations; delivery of agency programs and services; and real-time and periodic system monitoring. All of these management processes have important implications for an agency's attainment of its goals in public policy, financial resource availability, engineering standards and criteria, maintenance and operations levels of service, and overall system performance.

A number of support activities are involved as well. Information technology can inform many of these management processes, and agencies have already expended considerable sums to develop asset management systems, databases, and other analytic tools. These systems must, however, complement the decision-making processes and organizational structures of individual agencies if they are to operate effectively and support good asset management at all organizational levels. Effective communication of information on asset management between an agency and its governing bodies, stakeholders, and customers is likewise critical to success.

The objectives of this study have been 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 a Transportation Asset Management Guide. The study has been organized in two phases:

Phase I encompassed information gathering, framework development, and recommendation of a research program; and

Phase II has produced this Guide.