According to this primer, asset management is a systematic process of maintaining, upgrading, and operating physical assets cost-effectively. It combines engineering principles with sound business practices and economic theory, and it provides tools to facilitate a more organized, logical approach to decision-making. Thus, asset management provides a framework for handling both short- and long-range planning. Asset management has come of age because of (1) changes in the transportation environment, (2) changes in public expectations, and (3) extraordinary advances in technology. Today's transportation environment is characterized by high user demand, budgets stretched by significant and growing requirements, past and projected declines in staff resources, and a mature system that is experiencing ongoing deterioration. This document answers basic questions about Asset Management.