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Description / Abstract:
Foreword
In December 1999, the American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) jointly sponsored an executive workshop,
Asset Management Peer Exchange: Using Past Experiences to Shape
Future Practice, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Unlike the earlier
workshops, this peer exchange focused on ongoing asset management
activities in state transportation agencies. The goal of this
workshop was to bring representatives of state highway and
transportation agencies together to establish a dialogue with their
peers involved in asset management activities and to share
experiences. Through this dialogue, it was projected that the state
representatives would develop a greater understanding of asset
management tools and processes that would help them to practice
better asset management.
Seventy-four representatives of 33 state agencies
participated in the workshop, along with staff from the
AASHTO, the FHWA, other federal agencies involved with asset
management, and private firms and academic institutions who are
actively working with a state agency in asset management. The state
participants represented a variety of functions within agencies,
including engineering; finance, accounting, and budgeting; system
and asset management; policy and programming; planning; operations
and maintenance; design and construction; and materials and
research.
This workshop built on two previous workshops held in
Washington, D.C., in September 1996 and at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, in October 1997. The first event, the AASHTO/FHWA
Executive Seminar on Asset Management, drew representatives from
the leadership of the AASHTO, the FHWA, state departments of
transportation, private industry, utility companies,
quasi-government organizations, and research and supplier
communities. These participants shared their experience and
expertise in an effort to improve the quality of asset
management.
The second event brought together high-level officials from the
AASHTO, the FHWA, state transportation agencies; directors of
national organizations and professional associations; and
representatives of the private sector and academia. The workshop
was convened to evaluate current asset management practices,
technologies, and tools and to develop a strategy for moving
forward a cooperative approach to asset management strategy.
This executive summary provides an overview of the i999 workshop
including the presentations given at the plenary sessions by guest
speakers and representatives of state agencies and the discussions
that occurred in the breakout sessions. The workshop is documented
in more detail in a companion document, Proceedings of the
Asset Management Peer Exchange Workshop: Using Past Experiences to
Shape Future Practice.