Apr 23 2024
TRB Webinar: Incorporating Maintenance Costs into a Transportation Asset Management Plan
Virtual
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The desired outcome and expected final product of this research is to develop a technical
memorandum that summarizes findings from a research scan of existing TSMO plans and current
emerging technology research to identify interdependencies and relationships. The goals of this
research is to: 1) provide a resource for integrating emerging transportation technologies into
TSMO planning; and 2) integrating performance management and systems impacts analysis around
emerging transportation technologies into TSMO planning. (This Research Needs Statement was drawn from a Systems Management and Emerging Technologies Research Roadmap because of its overlap with performance management.)
Current research around TSMO plans looks at feasibility, resiliency, asset management, and how some
states are integrating technology into their TSMO plans. This does not address performance measures
of technology or how TSMO plans are assessing the integration of technology. Further, existing
research in emerging transportation technologies is focused on impacts on data, workforce training,
best practices, and asset management. There is no research about determining performance measures
for these technologies or how to apply those to existing state agency efforts. There are two gaps
addressed by emerging technologies into the context of performance measurements and one that uses TSMO plans to inform that process.
Research focus areas include current standards research and emerging technology management tools, task forces, and regulations. To successfully complete this research, the following key tasks will need to be completed:
• Conduct a national scan of state TSMO plans
• Review best practices for how TSMO plans can integrate emerging transportation technologies
• Look at existing case studies of how states use their TSMO plans to test or deploy emerging transportation technologies
• Synthesize and merge research around performance metrics and management for emerging transportation technologies
• Identify applicable research conducted by USDOT and AASHTO/TRB committees
• Develop 5-6 case studies showcasing the relationship between TSMO plans and existing research
TSMO, systems operations, systems management, transportation plan, emerging technologies, performance management
TSMO plans aim to improve the efficiency of transportation systems by addressing immediate
transportation needs and efficiently planning for future goals. Further, TSMO plans are becoming a
permanent and integral part of state DOT transportation plans as they look toward the future of
transportation. The primary purposes of TSMO plans and emerging technologies are to improve safety
and one of its primary criticisms has been the lack of transparency about the direction of emerging
technologies and how guidance will be developed for those technologies. This leads to skepticism
about if these technologies will serve transportation systems and lack of trust from the public,
with an added layer of being unsure of how these technologies will be evaluated. The guidance
developed by this project can address if such technologies can be used in a way that addresses
transportation system issues, includes state and local agencies, and improves the public’s trust in
the technology. This directly supports AASHTO’s vision statement to improve quality of life, and
AASHTO’s values of safety, trust and integrity, and transparency. The research also addresses several AASHTO goals and objectives, and
strategies.
States have a clear interest in integrating TSMO plans into existing agency functions. TSMO plans are becoming core functions of transportation agencies and to permanently accommodate these programs, agencies are developing TSMO plans that outline strategic, programmatic, and tactical visions with the necessary steps to achieve this vision. This includes outlining business cases, program performance measures and goals, organizational structure, staffing and workforce needs, leadership needs, and policies for implementation. TSMO plans can build on existing research from USDOT, and AASHTO/TRB committees addressing these elements in the context of performance measures for emerging technology.
Conducting this research is important to ensure emerging technologies can be incorporated into state plans for updating transportation systems. As TSMO plans are designed to be forward thinking and implementation focused, they are well equipped to address emerging technologies from the standpoint of developing and integrating performance measures. Not conducting this research may leave a gap around implementation and require state DOT’s to evaluate proposed programs, products, and policies without an established base of metrics or guidance. Transportation agencies at the state and local levels will rely on this body of research to build out TSMO plans that quantify impacts, and eventually all road users can benefit from TSMO plans that address performance measures for emerging transportation technologies. This will also benefit the larger community of practice and merge a key focus area of state DOTs with emerging transportation technologies.
Within a state DOT, departments focused on the evaluation and integration of emerging technologies
into the transportation system will likely be responsible for using the research results. Some
state DOTs have dedicated staff focused on transportation and innovation while other DOTs have
merged this into their departments focused on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
State DOTs can use the body of research developed by this statement to modify existing TSMO plans
or develop new plans that integrate performance measures for emerging transportation technologies.
The findings from this research are also anticipated to support needed coordination across
departments when considering the evaluation and implementation of emerging technologies, including
coordination around staff working on TSMO plans and evaluating emerging transportation
technologies.
Existing venues for further discussion around the project and the findings will include AASHTO
meetings, SMET joint-subcommittee, and meetings of the Transportation Research Board. There will
also be opportunities to coordinate findings with other national organizations and the Federal
Highway Administration.
The purpose of this research is to: 1) conduct a scan of state and local agencies with documented and quantified performance measures related to the integration of technology; 2) develop a summary of such performance measures; and 3) propose a set of synthesized draft standards for CAV, ITS/TSMO, EV, SM/MoD/MaaS, and UAS/UAM projects that also align with federal requirements. (Note: This RNS has been drawn from a System Management and Emerging Technologies (SMET) research roadmap because it overlaps with Transportation Performance Management.)
Existing research in emerging transportation technologies is focused on impacts on data, workforce training, best practices, and asset management. There is some research to date around quantifying the impact of emerging technologies or determining performance measures for these technologies. Research around performance management looks at integrating performance management into processes rather than developing metrics for performance. This project will build off existing research and support development of performance measurements for emerging transportation technologies and support development of process for quantifying and evaluating impacts with considering of existing performance measure requirements, and one that develops performance measurements.
The desired outcome and expected final product of the research is to develop a technical memorandum that summarizes findings from the scan, maps the relationships and interdependence among the organizations developing and leading use of performance measures related to technology, synthesizes and recommends performance measures that align with integration of emerging transportation technologies, and identifies and recommends future research focused on use of performance measures to support continued integration of emerging technologies.
Emerging technology, connected and autonomous vehicles, zero emission vehicles, performance measures, transportation metrics, equity
One of the main promises of emerging technologies is to improve quality of life by meeting more transportation user needs, and reducing the barriers that users face daily. Further, these technologies are integral to supporting state DOTs to bring them into the future of transportation. The primary
purpose of emerging technologies is to improve safety and one of its primary criticisms has been the lack of transparency by operators leading to skepticism about operators’ integrity and lack of trust from the public. The body of research developed by this project can address if such technologies can deliver on the promise of safety, use metrics to help operators be more transparent, and improve the public’s trust in the technology. This directly supports AASHTO’s vision statement to improve quality of life, and AASHTO’s values of safety, trust and integrity, and transparency. The research also addresses several AASHTO goals and objectives, and strategies.
As emerging transportation technologies are deployed on public roads, state DOTs are presented with a new challenge because the impacts of these technologies are still being evaluated. Further, the ability to evaluate impacts is hindered by the fact that many emerging technologies are still in the development stage and commercial use cases that will be scaled nationally are not yet known.
As road users in different jurisdictions are exposed to the safety issues presented by emerging transportation technologies, state DOTs are looked at to answer how these technologies will be regulated, monitored, and assessed. Part of this includes quantifying their impact on the transportation
system both at a local level and a federal level. Understanding how these technologies will transform transportation and road usage is integral to protecting the safety of road users while also understanding how proposed use cases may or may not impact the transportation system.
This research can be used to guide state DOTs in implementing emerging transportation technologies in a safe way that is based on the quantitative effects of the technologies on the transportation system. The benefits of this research will be the ability to provide guidance about the impacts of emerging transportation technologies to State DOTs and local agencies, which can then be used to steer the deployment of these technologies via standards development. Further benefits include understanding how these technologies will change the transportation system and developing performance measures for emerging technologies that are accessible to state and local governments.
Within a state DOT, departments focused on the evaluation and integration of emerging transportation technologies into the transportation system will likely be responsible for using the research results. Some state DOTs have dedicated staff focused on transportation and innovation while other DOTs have merged this into their departments focused on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
State DOTs can use the body of research developed by this statement to modify existing standards or develop new standards for the testing and deployment of emerging transportation technologies. The findings from this research are also anticipated to support needed coordination across departments when considering the evaluation and implementation of performance measures, including coordination around staff working on emerging technologies and staff supporting modeling.
Existing venues for further discussion around the project and the findings will include AASHTO meetings, SMET joint-subcommitee, and meetings of the Transportation Research Board. There will also be opportunities to coordinate findings with other national organizations and the Federal Highway Administration.
In February 2024, TAM Webinar 67 presented the findings from a research effort to understand "How Pavement and Bridge Conditions Affect Transportation System Performance." (https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop22077/fhwahop22077.pdf) Among the paper's findings were that (1) "A TAMP program manager is likely to focus on IRI values, rutting, cracking, and faulting because those relate to the measures and targets the TAMP must address. However, research indicates that in many cases, it is friction and not those metrics that drive pavement-related crash reduction," and (2) "[D]ata from Continuous Pavement Friction Measurement (CPFM), combined with crash data and road characteristics, provide significant insight regarding whether friction improvements may reduce crashes." The authors call on stakeholders to use "today's unparalleled access to data" to deliver a risk-based TAMP development process that can optimize and "simultaneously enhance asset conditions and system performance." CPFM is still an emerging method of measuring and monitoring pavement friction within the United States despite being the dominant method of managing pavements for safety outside of the United States. Accordingly, there are benefits to providing the US TAMP community with guidance, tools, and best practices on how to effectively link pavement management and safety using CPFM. Specifically, TAMP staff considering whether to pursue the findings highlighted TAM Webinar 67 may benefit from strategies to set pavement friction measurement targets and determine appropriate pavement friction performance measures, guidance on various treatments’ dual impacts on pavement condition and safety, as well as tools and strategies to coordinate effective pavement friction management implementation in partnership with an agency’s safety and pavement management programs.
In February 2024, TAM Webinar 67 presented the findings from a research effort to understand "How Pavement and Bridge Conditions Affect Transportation System Performance." (https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop22077/fhwahop22077.pdf) Among the paper's findings were that (1) "A TAMP program manager is likely to focus on IRI values, rutting, cracking, and faulting because those relate to the measures and targets the TAMP must address. However, research indicates that in many cases, it is friction and not those metrics that drive pavement-related crash reduction," and (2) "[D]ata from Continuous Pavement Friction Measurement (CPFM), combined with crash data and road characteristics, provide significant insight regarding whether friction improvements may reduce crashes." The authors call on stakeholders to use "today's unparalleled access to data" to deliver a risk-based TAMP development process that can optimize and "simultaneously enhance asset conditions and system performance." CPFM is still an emerging method of measuring and monitoring pavement friction within the United States despite being the dominant method of managing pavements for safety outside of the United States. Accordingly, there are benefits to providing the US TAMP community with guidance, tools, and best practices on how to effectively link pavement management and safety using CPFM. Specifically, TAMP staff considering whether to pursue the findings highlighted TAM Webinar 67 may benefit from strategies to set pavement friction measurement targets and determine appropriate pavement friction performance measures, guidance on various treatments’ dual impacts on pavement condition and safety, as well as tools and strategies to coordinate effective pavement friction management implementation in partnership with an agency’s safety and pavement management programs.
New Gen/Emerging Performance Measures (the statement was submitted on behalf of the Task Force on Emerging Performance Areas)
I think we should look again at how DOTs support and coordinate with local agencies in developing asset management capabilities. For example, MI has their AM Council, and in Iowa the state provides pavement data for ALL paved roads to local agencies to support pavement management. Would like to learn what other states/locals are doing and how we can encourage broader TAM efforts.
I think we should look again at how DOTs support and coordinate with local agencies in developing asset management capabilities. For example, MI has their AM Council, and in Iowa the state provides pavement data for ALL paved roads to local agencies to support pavement management. Would like to learn what other states/locals are doing and how we can encourage broader TAM efforts.
In contrast to business providing shareholder value through a monetary exchange of products and services to individual clients or customers for their individual consumption, the public sector operates from a monetary public entrustment to provide goods and services for collective consumption. This public investment obligates the public sector to understand the values and aspirations of the served community and be efficient and effective in managing their resources and create public value.
In 1995, Mark Moore developed a public value strategic triangle[1]:
The term “public value” describes the value of contribution to served communities and broader society. In other words, transportation services provide benefit to the direct recipients (i.e., users of the system) and adds value to the public sphere. It represents agency-public consensus of principles and benefits and pertains to both the content of service and how it is delivered. When instituted as an organizing principle, public value creation guides administrative policy and management decisions with an aim to increase the value of societal and community benefit. Transportation administration and managers define and solve problems from a value perspective when deploying public assets. Evaluating management decisions through a public value lens promotes a deeper understanding and action to achieve traditional outcomes and value-based performance expectations.
A 2023 World Road Association (PIARC) technical reported titled Measuring Customer Experience and Public Value Creation for Transport Administrators is an important work focused on understanding how transportation administrations are measuring efficiency and effectiveness of customer experience and public valuation creation with greater emphasis on the customer experience component. There remains an essential need to further develop a framework for the creation and measurement of the public value that considers and emphasizes societal contribution in decision-making. The PIARC research was constrained to the evaluation of existing work by transport administrations and agencies. There are non-transportation public sectors with mature frameworks for creating and measuring public value for which transportation administrations can learn from, adapt and adopt as best practice.
[1] Moore, Michael. Creating Public Value, Strategic Management in Government. Harvard University Press, 1995.
To further understand, create and measure the public value of transportation services and contributions to community and societal goals, there are two proposed objectives for this research project.
[1] Nicholas Faulkner and Stefan Kaufman. Avoiding Theoretical Stagnation: A System Review and Framework for Measuring Public Value, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 2017.
This project is aligned with the AASHTO Mission to connect America with the transportation system of today and tomorrow. The project supports AASHTO Strategic Plan goals including safe mobility and access for everyone, and national transportation policy leadership and strategies such as establishing framework and tools to enable impactful policy decisions.
Without a comprehensive understanding of community needs and priorities, transportation agencies face significant risk in meeting community goals and expected levels of service. These risks could lead to ineffective decisions, inefficient use of funds, and erosion of public confidence. Transitioning to integrated thinking and promoting a holistic view at program delivery and “public value” strategies supports public value creation, contribution to community goals and societal benefit, and accountability to the public trust.
The research would be beneficial to transportation administrations and professionals at any level of government as well as transportation organization partners and stakeholders who all have a vested interest in creating public value and measuring value contribution toward community and societal goals.
Nathaniel Vogt – Ohio DOT: we are working on Carbon Reduction Strategy and Resiliency Improvement Plan. We’ve had a few questions come up about how to measure performance and goals on resiliency and reducing emissions from the transportation system.
The perennial question remains: what is an effective performance measure for transportation resilience in a community, state, or other jurisdiction? Progress toward good answers has been underway for several years, though desultory and usually off-target. The need for this research was further reinforced during the December 2022 AASHTO conference in Providence and the January 2023 TRB annual meeting, which included a handful of workshops and sessions that broached this subject. From the perspective of high-quality performance management practice, effective measures of resilience have been elusive. Our colleagues are very good at measuring resilience for specific infrastructure, an organization, or a supply chain, but not for community mobility. This research will tease out how best to really measure it, from a state-of-the-art performance management perspective, not just the easy but low-value event or activity tallies. Consider an agency or community investing in preparedness work, infrastructure hardening, or implementing a policy shift – what is the most effective, objective, outcome-based evidence for whether the jurisdiction is now more resilient than it was a year ago? There are some seeds of ideas, but the same questions are shared by multiple agencies, PIARC, AASHTO committees, TRB committees, and surely others.
While there are several published resources referring to resilience performance, there remains a gap in effective performance measurement that this proposed research seeks to close.
Disaster Resilience Framework Workshop, 2015, San Diego. The workshop notes (unpublished) includes a section about Community Resilience Metrics.
Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Framework (VAAF), 2017, FHWA HOP (link). An important go-to guide for anybody working on transportation resilience.
Integrating Resilience into the Transportation Planning Process, White Paper on Literature Review Findings, 2018, FHWA HOP (link). A good resource for background and context, including a history of Federal rules on resilience. This document correctly places performance measure formulation after goals but before solutions.
Investing in Transportation Resilience: A Framework for Informed Choices, 2021, NAS/TRB (link). This also included a Committee on Transportation Resilience Metrics. The document includes some relevant points but is generally of limited value for performance management given its focus on project-specific evaluations and benefit-cost analysis.
Mainstreaming System Resilience Concepts into Transportation Agencies: A Guide, 2021, NAS/TRB (link). Follows on a 2018 resilience summit in Denver. A wealth of information about resilience, but measurement appears limited to project-specific risk reduction.
Developing Transportation System Climate Resilience Performance Measures, 2022, Minnesota DOT (link). A survey showed most states do not have resilience performance measures. Those that do are not outcome-based.
A Perspective on Quantifying Resilience: Combining Community and Infrastructure Capitals, 2023, Gerges et al (link).
Measuring Impacts and Performance of State DOT Resilience Efforts, 2022-2024, NCHRP 23-26, underway (link). Potentially valuable for this proposed research, but measures are not defined until after solutions and appear to focus only on monitoring project effects.
Transportation Asset Risk and Resilience, 2023-2026, NCHRP 23-32, pending/underway (link). A relatively large effort to generate new guidance, which may or may not include performance.
There are many laws, rules, references, and guidance documents going back many years, and right up to the current PROTECT Program guidance. The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act (2020), H.R.1865, calls on the “Secretary of Transportation to enter into an agreement with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a study through the Transportation Research Board on effective ways to measure the resilience of transportation systems and services to natural disasters, natural hazards, and other potential disruptions.”
Be wary of two tangents in literature: those focused solely on infrastructure and others about operational/organizational resilience, which are mostly unhelpful and distracting. Apart from published guidance, this research project will include a scan of select agencies to gather evidence and examples
This research seeks to disentangle attempts to date and clarify what it means to have an effective, outcome-based, high-level performance management approach to resilience. Toward this end there are three essential parts:
1. Confirming definitions. For example, is resilience an inverse of vulnerability? Or an inverse of just sensitivity and adaptive capacity (e.g., per the Vulnerability Assessment Scoring Tool [VAST])? If resilience is infinite, is exposure irrelevant? Consistent with the VAAF, is there consensus on the definitions for risk, criticality, consequence, and other essential terms?
2. Community mobility, or mobility and destination access across a jurisdiction of any size, for all users and modes. This is distinct from infrastructure-focused resilience for a specific asset, e.g., a bridge. For a community subject to natural or human-caused disasters, how can they know whether they are more or less resilient? Is there a role for the broader 4R concept of Robustness – Redundancy – Resourcefulness – Rapidity?
3. Effective performance measures. Pin down for the resilience community what that means. Agency leaders need the most relevant, feasible, and quantifiable evidence of improved resilience that is outcome-based and trackable over time. These are not the abundance of output or activity metrics already in play, nor project-specific evaluations.
In addition to developed guidance, this project will pilot the implementation of a high-quality resilience performance measure into existing performance management frameworks for up to five agencies. Not only states, but MPOs, e.g. Los Angeles and San Diego have promising initiatives already developed.
resilience, measures, performance management, community resilience
This project would advance goals identified in the AASHTO Strategic Plan, most specifically the goal of “Safety, Mobility and Access for Everyone” that includes “strengthen resiliency.” This project would also support several strategies in the Strategic Plan, including establishing frameworks and tools to enable impactful policy decisions, supporting implementation within member agencies, advocating to minimize the impacts of climate change, and applying scenario planning to better weigh options in decision-making.
Transportation resilience has grown in importance and this gap in practice needs to be addressed.
This research should be completed in parallel with the NCHRP 23-32 Risk & Resilience guidance development to be able to inform those products.
[to be expanded]
This research would primarily be used by transportation agencies and others responsible for implementing resilience performance measures and management systems. Recently completed NCHRP Project 23-09 established a framework and research roadmap for assessing risk to agency assets and the traveling public from extreme weather, climate change, and other threats and hazards. Follow-on NCHRP Project 23-32 Asset Risk & Resilience will develop the technical resource in three phases, including planning, execution, and final product development. As described above, this research should be conducted along a parallel and complementary timeline. Critical implementation elements include a communication plan to ensure awareness of the research products and TRB, FHWA, and AASHTO webinars to share the findings.
A subsequent phase of this research funded through NCHRP 20-44 may be helpful to disseminate the research findings more broadly and develop case studies showing the use of the research guidance. There are several other AASHTO and TRB committees interested in resiliency that would likely support this project, including:
State DOTs have access to a growing number of tools that may allow them to evaluate GHG emissions impacts. However, research is needed to understand how such tools can best be incorporated into transportation decision making processes and what additional tools may be necessary.
Existing tools for transportation GHG strategy analysis have not been developed with transportation programming and project prioritization in mind. The available tools are either designed for strategic level evaluation of policies (e.g., EERPAT, VisionEval) or project-level evaluation using data more detailed than is typically available during planning and programming (e.g., FHWA CMAQ Emissions Calculator Toolkit, California Life-Cycle Benefit/Cost Analysis Model or Cal-B/C). Other common tools for transportation evaluation, including statewide and regional travel demand models and emission factor models such as MOVES, are limited in their ability to evaluate GHG reduction strategies and typically require substantial modification and/or combination with other tools and methods.
Existing literature describing transportation GHG evaluation tools and their application for planning and programming includes:
● NCHRP WebResource 1, Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Guide for State DOTs (2022).
● Oregon Department of Transportation (2018), Oregon Greenhouse Gas Modeling and Analysis Tools.
● FHWA, Handbook for Estimating Transportation Greenhouse Gases for Integration into the Planning Process (2013).
● NCHRP Web-Only Document 152, Assessing Mechanisms for Integrating Transportation-Related Greenhouse Gas Reduction Objectives into Transportation Decision Making (2010).
Additional literature addresses consideration of air quality issues in programming, with lessons that could potentially applied to GHG consideration:
● Rowangould, G., Nadafianshahamabadi, R., & Poorfakhraei, A. (2018). Programming Flexible Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program Funds: Best Practices for State DOTs. Transportation Research Record, 2672(51), 99–108.
Other relevant research in progress includes:
● NCHRP Project 20-05, Topic 54-21, Synthesis of Information Related to Highway Practices: Practices in the Transportation Planning Process to Address Climate Resilience and GHG Emission Quantification and Reduction.
● NCHRP 08-154, Guidance for Agencies to Incorporate Uncertainty into Long-Range Transportation Planning.
● NCHRP Project 25-70, Developing a Framework for Evaluation of Decarbonization Outcomes.
The objective of this research is to advance the practice of incorporating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions evaluation into transportation decision making and performance management. In particular, this will be accomplished by identifying and building upon the state of the practice for state departments of transportation (DOTs) with regard to accounting for transportation related GHG emissions during planning, project prioritization, and performance management. State DOTs have access to certain tools that allow for estimation and evaluation of transportation emissions, but additional tools and methods are needed to inform decision making and align with state and federal GHG emission-reduction goals.
The following research tasks will support the main objective:
Task 1: Review literature and conduct targeted outreach to state DOTs to identify existing methods and tools used to evaluate potential GHG outcomes during transportation decision making processes. For each specific policy making process, describe how available tools, data and information support decision making within that context.
Task 2: Analyze the results of the review/survey to identify gaps where existing tools are not adequate to inform transportation decision making.
Task 3: Develop an analytical basis to fill identified gaps and propose specific additional tools, analytical methods and other information that would be needed to meet the needs of state DOT more fully, aiming to account for the GHG performance of transportation projects during planning, project prioritization and performance management activities
greenhouse gas; performance management
This project is aligned with the AASHTO Vision to provide improved quality of life through leadership in transportation. The project would advance goals identified in the AASHTO Strategic Plan, including improving asset performance and evaluating emerging trends in technologies, policies and practices. This project would also support a number of strategies in the Strategic Plan, including establishing frameworks and tools to enable impactful policy decisions, supporting implementation within member agencies, advocating to minimize the impacts of climate change, and applying scenario planning to better weigh options in decision-making.
Transportation is the largest source of GHG emissions in most U.S. states. As states seek to achieve emissions reductions from the transportation sector, either on their own or to comply with federal regulations, it will be necessary for state DOTs to evaluate the GHG emissions impacts of investment decisions and align future projects and plans with GHG targets. Widely available reliable tools to evaluate GHG emissions will be needed at various stages of state DOT transportation decision making processes, from long-range planning to performance evaluation.
New federal and state requirements increasingly tie GHG evaluation to transportation decision making. The Carbon Reduction Program, established under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (December 2021), requires state DOTs and MPOs to develop carbon reduction strategies to support the reduction of transportation emissions. FHWA’s proposed GHG Transportation Performance Management measure would require state DOTs and MPOs to establish and meet declining targets for transportation emissions on the National Highway System. In addition, a growing number of states (including Colorado and Minnesota) have adopted planning standards that require DOTs and MPOs to evaluate the GHG impacts of transportation projects.
State DOT staff, especially those responsible for planning, project prioritization, and performance evaluation, will be engaged to identify current practices and opportunities to incorporate GHG evaluation tools and methods into transportation decision making. DOTs may need to work with partners to inform the development of additional tools based on gaps identified through this research.
There are several other AASHTO and TRB committees interested in greenhouse gas emissions that would likely support this project, including:
• AASHTO:
o Committee on Performance Based Management (CPBM) Task Force on Emerging Performance Measures - Deanna Belden, Minnesota DOT and Kelly Travelbee, Michigan DOT, Co-Chairs
o Committee on Environment and Sustainability
o Committee on Planning
• TRB:
o Performance Management (AJE20) - Michael Grant, Chair
o Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation (AMS10)
o Transportation Planning Policy and Processes (AEP10)
o Transportation Planning Analysis and Application (AEP15)
o Environmental Analysis and Ecology (AEP70)
a. Communication and Implementation Funding: [to be completed]
b. Communication and Implementation Period: [to be completed]
10. PROBLEM STATEMENT AUTHOR(s): For each author, provide their name, affiliation, email address and phone.
James Bradbury, Georgetown Climate Center, [email protected], (202) 557-6267
Ryan Levandowski, Georgetown Climate Center, [email protected], (802) 558-3566
Kelly Travelbee, Michigan DOT, [email protected], (517) 898-4875
Deanna Belden, Minnesota DOT, [email protected], (651) 366-3734
Brief Description
Maybe an implementation project for Report 985 (Integrating Effective Transportation Performance, Risk, and Asset Management Practices)
Champion
Chris Whipple (UDOT)
Team
Spencer Wagner (DCDOT)
One of the key inputs to transportation asset management systems is the unit cost of each treatment. Costs associated with improving an asset consist of three components:
• Direct treatment costs: Cost of the treatment itself. This component includes just the pay items required to complete the treatment, such as the hot-mix asphalt (HMA) in a HMA overlay, or the concrete and reinforcement needed to construct a replacement concrete pavement.
• Direct project costs: Costs incurred as part of the construction project. These costs include traffic control, mobilization, ancillary features such as traffic signals and guardrail, etc.
• Indirect costs: Costs in advance of the project. This component includes Phase I studies, Phase II plan development, as well as any environmental investigations that may be needed. Also included in this component are utility relocations and land acquisition, and possibly costs associated with railroads.
The accuracy of the unit cost data is imperative to accurately managing a transportation system. If the costs are underestimated, the agency will program more work than can be accomplished. Anticipated conditions over time will be overstated as a result. This synthesis seeks to determine how transportation agencies are quantifying the direct and indirect treatment costs associated with improving assets, and the corresponding impact on their capital program as a whole.
Synthesis of Information Related to Highway Practices. Topic 54-22, Practices for Capturing Costs of Maintenance Operations in Maintenance Management Systems (Transportation Research Board), is similar but focuses on the maintenance side of asset management, particularly maintenance performed by the transportation agencies themselves.
Incorporating Cost Uncertainty and Path Dependence into Treatment Selection for Pavement Networks (Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, Volume 110, pp 40-55), begins at the next step after treatment unit costs have been developed and looks at the effect of uncertainty in cost on the cost-effectiveness of pavement network planning.
NCHRP Report 545, Analytical Tools for Asset Management, notes that a translation process is required to develop unit costs that are usable by most management systems. The proposed synthesis will be an important step toward closing that gap.
NCHRP 02-26, Implementation of Life-Cycle Planning Analysis in a Transportation Asset Management Framework, acknowledges the importance of treatment unit costs as an input to life-cycle planning, but does not go into detail on the development of the treatment costs themselves.
The objective of this research is to determine how transportation agencies are quantifying the direct and indirect treatment costs associated with improving assets as an input to their asset management systems, and the corresponding impact on their capital program as a whole.
Information to be gathered includes (but is not limited to):
• The components of an asset improvement project included in the budgets used in the asset management system, such as the construction project itself, preliminary engineering, land acquisition, etc.
• The source of treatment cost data, such as contract lettings, final design estimates, programming estimates, etc.
• The frequency of updating the treatment costs in the asset management system.
Proposed Research Activities: Information will be collected through a review of the 52 state agencies’ 2022/2023 Transportation Asset Management Plans, a survey of DOTs and other transportation agencies, and follow-up interviews with selected agencies for more detailed information. Information gaps and suggestions for research to address those gaps will be identified.
Susan Lime
treatment unit costs, asset management systems, direct costs, indirect costs, program costs
The research findings will assist transportation agencies in their development and use of comprehensive treatment unit costs as an input to life-cycle planning, enabling them to accurately project condition and therefore improve asset performance.
Very little detailed information on best practices related to treatment costs used in asset management systems exists, as noted below in the literature search summary. Yet the accuracy of treatment costs is of paramount importance in programming the proper amount of work that can be accomplished within given budgets and therefore in predicting asset performance into the future. The potential benefits of the research include agencies learning more accurate means of determining treatment unit costs, as well as identifying additional research needs to improve best practices nationwide.
The asset management engineer and others in an asset management section will be responsible for using the research results. Anyone involved in configuring the inputs to the asset management system, particularly with an eye toward getting the best possible outcomes, would be interested in the results of this research. The implementation would likely involve an improvement to existing processes rather than creating new processes.
a. Communication and Implementation Funding:
b. Communication and Implementation Period:
KEYWORDS/TERMS – treatment unit costs, asset management systems, direct costs, indirect costs, program costs
Brief Description
As we have more new techniques for managing assets using trenchless technology, do we know the expected life and subsequent treatments for these assets.
Champion
Susan Lime, NM DOT
Team
Baris Salman
Stephanie Dock
Brief Description
TBD
Champion
Aimee Flannary
Team
TBD
2. Please provide a brief description (1-2 paragraphs) of the scope of the task/activity sought by the committee or council. Please include the task objectives and anticipated deliverables.
Aging transportation infrastructure, increasing demands, budget limitations, and new regulations are placing increasing levels of pressure on transportation asset management professionals. TAM professionals are expected to possess technical knowledge and soft skills to be able to lead their agency’s implementation efforts. These skills and knowledge areas include, but are not limited to, data collection, filtering, and analysis; visualization; multi-criteria decision making; optimization; communication; and leadership. Unfortunately, academic programs offered by universities are falling short of providing asset management professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills in their formative years. Asset management is a multidisciplinary field that involves aspects of multiple disciplines (e.g., engineering, finance, planning, etc.). Because of its multidisciplinary nature, asset management does not necessarily fit into traditional university programs that are often structured in domain-specific disciplines. Due to the limited offerings at educational institutions, a substantial number of transportation professionals are ill-prepared to take on responsibilities expected from a TAM professional and struggle with acquiring these skills on-the-spot while balancing the demands placed on them due to their day-to-day duties. Non-academic organizations have developed educational and professional development opportunities in asset management to address this demand, but these offerings are often not targeted to applications in transportation and can be viewed as expensive, time-consuming alternatives that only offer partial solutions to specific gaps in knowledge.
There is an urgent need to determine the competencies and skills expected from TAM professionals and identify needs for the development of new curriculum and/or new accreditation programs for workforce development in transportation asset management. In order to develop such curricula, extensive research needs to be conducted to specifically identify educational needs by examining the gap between required competencies and available offerings. This project will identify these gaps and recommend specific curriculum and/or accreditation programs needed for workforce development in transportation asset management. This project is the first step needed to improve our TAM professionals’ capabilities and capacity in improving the performance of our transportation assets and maximizing the benefits of asset management decision-making.
This scoping study will explore the need to develop new curriculum and/or accreditation programs for workforce development in transportation asset management. The study is structured along four tasks. First, the study will identify the competencies and skills transportation asset managers need to successfully develop and implement TAM. Second, a comprehensive review of existing programs offered by universities and non-academic organizations will be conducted. Third, a gap analysis will be performed to identify gaps between currently available offerings and the desired competencies. Finally, the study will summarize these gaps and recommend needs for the development of new curriculum and/or accreditation programs for workforce development in TAM. If the recommendation is made to develop new curricula and/or accreditation programs, then an NCHPR problem statement will be prepared that can be submitted for funding consideration by AASHTO.
It is anticipated that this scoping study would be part of a three-phase research project if the recommendation is to develop new curricula for workforce development in transportation asset management:
- Looking at current practice and examples from states like NM. Utah looking beyond engineering disciplines. Multidisciplinary teams. What do agencies need from TAM professionals? Competencies for asset management. Mapping needs (TAM Guide may have needs) to core skills.
- (Not sure if we limit to just Univ - we talked about other options)
Champion
Shannon McGrath
Team
Susan Lime (Culvery Asset Management Program - CAMP), NM DOT
Chris Whipple, UDOT
Baris Salman
Alma Mujanovic
Basak Bektas
Task Description
Task 1: Identify required and desired competencies and skills to successfully develop and implement TAM
Task 2: Examine existing curriculum and accreditation programs in TAM
Task 3: Conduct a Gap Analysis
Task 4: Develop Recommendations
7. Confirm YES to the following:
AASHTO Committee on Performance-Based Management
As the United States moves toward a fleet comprised of more EV and hybrid vehicles, important questions impacting the design and management of critical assets must be considered in future practice and policy making. For instance:
Answering these questions is critical as the types of vehicles using state and local transportation facilities transition to the next generation of vehicles.
Since asset management (AM) is a business process and decision-making framework using economic and engineering modeling over an extended time horizon, it can help inform many aspects of designing and planning for and implementing the expected service levels of roadways and structures to support adoption of next-generation vehicles. Developing guidance that reflects changes associated with EV and hybrid vehicles will lead to updated design models, more reflective deterioration rates, and improved planning for the preservation, improvement, and operation of road and bridge assets while protecting them from shorter lifecycles.
Single occupancy vehicles, while a major cause for congestion, do not appear to provide measurable impacts to load weighting. Therefore, the next-generation vehicles considered under this study will include a comprehensive mix, including transit, garbage trucks, and freight. For bridge analysis, this research would evaluate existing data and account for the battery weight to develop a design load model for gross vehicle weight. Pavement analysis utilizes equivalent single axle load (ESAL) ratings.
The figure linked below, provided by the City of Seattle, illustrates the tremendous load impacts that buses and trucks have on pavements and bridges:
https://www.tam-portal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2023/10/Picture1.jpg
The City estimated that it would take about:
WSDOT, in its pavement design guide, advises that the average 18-wheel, double unit truck on a state highway has a total ESAL factor of 1.00 to 1.35 on average, a figure reached through their different studies of truck weights (at weigh stations, etc.). As the picture shows, the design loading is significantly lower than those being applied by buses, especially those with heavy batteries.
Transit buses have a federal exemption from axle weight limits that dates to the ISTEA transportation legislation in the early 1990s. Buses have gotten increasingly heavy over the last two decades with new equipment like hybrid powertrains, yet the number of axles remains the same because of the exemption. Furthermore, transit agencies are often not the owners of the roadways and bridges so they may not consider infrastructure conditions and design into their decision making.
The average bus empty is more damaging than the typical truck on a state highway. Add passengers, the exponential relationship between axle weight and fatigue, and the damage factor per bus increases to almost six times for the heavy articulated hybrids.
The figure hints at why agencies are struggling to maintain roads and bridges. As the transportation system is expected to carry heavier vehicles than they were designed for, it is critical to update design models and develop new deterioration factors to be used in asset lifecycle planning.
In addition to design and maintenance issues, the study will also consider environmental and social impacts and potential risks associated with next-generation vehicles. The inclusion of these factors enables asset management cross-asset trade-offs to be evaluated in terms of both positive and negative impacts. A comprehensive, triple bottom line study will pull from existing sustainability and economic lifecycle cost analyses on EVs and infrastructure construction along with societal factors such as increases in travel time from driving on deteriorated infrastructure assets.
The objective of this study is to develop a guidebook with suggestions for updating asset management models used in pavement and bridge design and preservation. The guide will be developed from research to determine:
The guidebook will be supported by case studies from a variety of agencies (state and local, urban, and rural) illustrating the potential impact the resulting deterioration rates would have on pavement and bridge designs, maintenance strategies, and lifecycle costs.
EV, buses, ESAL, hybrid vehicles, deterioration curves, vehicle size and weight, roadways, bridges, sustainability, infrastructure design, material selection, whole life cost assessment, agency and asset resilience, risk
Safety, Mobility and Access for Everyone: Advance a safe, multimodal transportation system; Advance equity and social justice; Improve asset performance; Strengthen resiliency; Align transportation interests across partners and regions
National Transportation Policy Leadership: Deliver a proactive policy platform for the future; Evaluate emerging trends in technologies, policies and practices; Communicate the value of transportation; Advocate for sustainable funding; Promote a broad range of thoughts and policies
Organizational Excellence with World Class Services: Be the trusted developers and keepers of transportation standards and guidance; Build transportation workforce capabilities; Innovate and modernize products and services
This project would benefit the entire bridge and pavement community by helping them to prepare for future EV and hybrid applications. Having quantifiable AM models that predict accelerated deterioration rate, will help to inform design considerations, transit and freight routes, future funding needs, and support conversations between DOTs and Transit agencies for future service level planning.
The report would benefit from case studies for each pavement and bridge category including local, state, and county agencies representing high and low volume roads / bridges along with rural and urban settings.
Ping Lu
FHWA
Emily Burns
Seattle Office of the Waterfront
Matt Versdahl
WSDOT
AASHTO committees— Bridge Management; Preservation; Pavement Management; Performance Management
TRB Performance Management AJE20
TRB Asset Management AJE30
- Organizational strategies for improvement
- Innovation challenges
- Thinking outside the LSS, Lean methodologies
- Office of competition at the federal level - mechanism exists at the - - - federal level
- Crowdsourcing improvement efforts
Potential benefit if you can align political and departmental alignment
Always need to balance top-down and bottom-up, operationalization of it
**Involvement of those doing the work is critical to long-term success - what are the contributing factors to make large-scale efforts successful?
https://sites.google.com/state.co.us/process-improvement/tools-resources/cascades-how-to-create-a-movement-that-drives-transformational-change
How do you build a movement in transportation
Customer-, Environment- centric momentum for organizational change - What are the key components needed to make process?
Related organizational changes needed to make it happen?
Dave - Brene Brown - “Clarity is Kindness” in all that we do, find tools that help break down barriers.
Ties in with KM, OM, Risk, etc.
(Of the ones recommended, Gary and Gehan support this one the most)
Infrastructure
Changing over the fleet
Incorporating uncertainty into forecasting, target-setting, and monitoring - low /high matrix - inflation, funding,
performance, modeling uncertainty envelope (synthesis/peer exchange in lieu of research project?) (Risk as a
band of uncertainty v. a number) - Charles Pilson
There was a recent research idea on how to visualize/communicate uncertainty. Maybe a TAM conference
idea?
The RMS also has "ERM - Improving Risk Visualization and Communication Internally and Externally"
in the candidate pool. Not sure if that's related to the idea of communicating uncertainty? - Matt Haubrich
(please add clarifying details and topic title suggestions)
Many states and local jurisdictions have deployed some level of automated technologies , such as low speed shuttles, and or have partnered with private agencies or research institutions to do so
Little performance or other information is available in a consolidated and organized fashion about the results of these pilots, test cases and or deployments
Policy makers have become guarded about investing in pilots and similar deployments, especially given the recent disillusionment with technology potentials such as AVs, CVs and CAVs and want to understand what benefits and results have been achieved.
Challenges may include the availability of data, data agreements (which often preclude external data sharing) and or lack of sufficient data in cases of short term pilots.
What kind of data is available, can be analyzed and summarized into a consolidated report to understand 1. what pilot shave been conducted (over past x/3 years? ) and 2. What is the performance of these pilots and or deployments in terms of safety and system efficiency and operation? (Similar interest exists in understanding equity impacts but those would be even harder to quantify and are not included , unless data is available).
Potential partnership with Eastern Corridor Coalition
please add clarifying details and topic title suggestions)
More cross-modal (other than vehicle) data; specifically: pedestrian, bicycle and certain transit data is needed for various applications and needs including Complete Streets, We need more and better quality, verified data for transit, bikes, peds, and non-car users.
Includes examining options for data availability, quality, validity, analytics.
Stephanie Dock, Daniel Hulker, and Daniela Bremmer were interested in further defining/developing this research concept and invited other CPBM and subcommittee members to join.
Potential partnership with Eastern Corridor Coalition's-data group (working on methodologies for assessing and standardizing cross-modal non-vehicular data)?
Jun Liu of U of Alabama suggested this at the first COPlanning Research Symposium, but it has SMET implications. (I,e EV fires , other )
Should SMET be lead? Partnering with COP, CTSO, others? Options? (Should we pursue this? Reach out to Planning? Add more context description?)
Focus on critical transportation planning issues and better addressing resilience, access, environmental protection, and financial limitations.
Focus on new infrastructure needs, air quality, and transportation revenue
To be able to adjust for demographic changes, transformational technologies, and other uncertainties.
note: this also falls under the Equity (E) category
Note: this research is also in the Governance and Decision Making (G/DM) category
Note: short term need
Consider an implementation project for NCHRP Research Report 980 Attracting, Retaining, and Developing the Transportation Workforce: Transportation Planners published in 2021
What is it, is there a common definition, why is it important, is it different from various stakeholder perspectives, and how to achieve it through DOT infrastructure and program investments
Research to improve DOTs capability and capacity for data-driven decision making.
Research to advance the discipline of data-driven decision making within State DOTs
NCHRP Project 23-27 Strategies to Strengthen Data-Driven Decision Making Details here.
This research would produce an updated guidebook of current and emerging performance
measures used and for use by State DOTs.
NCHRP 20-24(37)G – Technical Guidance for
Deploying National Level Performance Measurements was completed in 2011. This project
would update this valuable guidance.
Create a best practices guide for using data to inform equitable deployments of AVs and shared mobility.
Risk communication is the act of sharing information about potential threats to people and infrastructure with the objective of saving life and property. This covers a wide range of information, including asset condition, mobility, safety, economic impacts, environmental impacts, and others. Effective verbal, visual, and written communication promotes the recovery of disrupted systems while maintaining public confidence in these systems. This requires that all communication tracks be congruent and effective.
Barriers to effective risk communication exist, both internally and externally. One major barrier to internal communication is organizational “siloing”. Staff working within different functional areas (such as safety, operations, and emergency management) may feel little incentive to collaborate if they believe their missions are independent of other departments. Organizational silos result in duplication of effort and inefficiency, and lack of various perspectives in approaching problems.
Another major obstacle is delivering the appropriate message at the right time with clear language that speaks to all audiences. If not properly delivered, communication may inadvertently create hysteria, unease, and confusion. Barriers to external communications with outside agencies stem from a lack of established two-way communications channels, dissimilar language, and varying definitions of risk. Communications with the public and others need to eliminate rumors, lack of expert consensus, over-hyped reporting, failure to understand of ethnic differences, and so on. Ultimately, overcoming these obstacles requires:
• Leadership direction including a reality-based vision, the "path forward", and incentives to interact
• Organizational support from multiple groups
• Clear definition of both Inter- and intra-agencies including:
- What collaboration may look like
- The reason and importance of the collaboration
- How and when collaboration takes place
• Partnerships with community organizations
• Defined and appropriate language for messaging that effectively outlines the hazards, severity, location, affected population, and uncertainty of risk
• Alignment of verbal, visual, and written communications to relay complementary messages.
• Selection of appropriate messaging vehicles (email, variable message sign, web site, etc.)
These efforts require research to identify the best methods and current examples of how to implement such communication at a DOT. As many options exist for internal and external risk communication, and various agencies and organizations have their own communication requirements, effective research will provide a path forward to establishing effective risk visualization and communication at a DOT.
Review of existing literature on developing effective communication techniques, risk visualization, and implementing these initiatives in transportation agencies reveals that there are studies into aspects of these topics, but this proposed research will combine these aspects into a single topic. Previous research includes studies into project improvements through effective communication and its results, the relationship between collaboration and performance across regional safety coalitions, study into the issues of effectively conveying risk, especially among multiple assets, and the use of visualization and modelling to communicate ideas and facilitate communication among transportation planners and agencies. Literature on these topics and others provide information on aspects of communication that are useful to agencies. This research will combine the focus of these previous studies into specifically identifying how to effectively develop communication of risk visualization both within a DOT and with its partner agencies, as well as the public at large. This effort will provide specific inquiry into this subject, providing DOT’s and their partner agencies with valuable information on combining effective communication strategies with risk visualization techniques. This builds on previous study, which covered aspects of communication at DOT’s, risk communication, and other related topics, while not combining such study into a specific project.
The objectives of this research are to develop guidance in the following initiatives which can be used to develop effective risk visualization communication within DOT’s, with external agencies, and the public in the by performing study into the following initiatives:
1. Establishing intra-agency communication.
2. Establishing external partnerships and two-way communications channels with community organizations.
3. Crafting an effective visual, verbal, and written communication strategy with materials (ie., metrics, dashboards, regular reports) with a clear explanation of uncertainty.
4. Determining the appropriate message vehicle.
This research will examine current strategies and methods of risk visualization communication at various DOT’s. Internal communication, two-way communication channels with external organizations, associated strategies, and other aspects of communication in relation to risk visualization will be extensively explored.
Ineffective communication on Risk Visualization at DOT’s may lead to incomplete risk management and a lack of understanding of potential risks associated with DOT projects. This understandably can create severe issues that impact multiple people. Ineffective communication may cause breakdowns of information between agency departments internally, and with external parties. Lack of understanding of potential risks may lead to projects which do not mitigate these risks and create dangerous situations for users. Significant financial investment may be required to mitigate dangers that were missed due to ineffective risk management communication, or to ensure that missed information is eventually communicated. Ensuring that risk visualization is properly communicated and understood among DOTs, related departments, and the community, more effective lines of communications within an agency lead to effective understanding of potential risks, and the mitigation of these risk to create safe situations across transportation systems.
Within a DOT, it is expected that employees and directors associated with Risk Management departments will be the most likely to utilize the results of this research. Any departments within a DOT associated with Risk Management through project work would also utilize this information. After research is complete, a DOT will be able to implement study findings by developing or strengthening their current risk visualization communication strategies based on the reported study results. Training, any required updating of systems, and development of new processes may be required. Presentation of study findings to risk management managers, and other project managers within the DOT could be an effective method of creating awareness of new techniques for improving communication related to risk visualizations. Communication of findings can be relayed to departments associated with risk management, to ensure that communication strategies can be implemented across multiple levels (and in order to prevent departmental ‘siloing’).
LINK TO 2021-2026 AASHTO STRATEGIC PLAN: This project aligns to the AASHTO Strategic Plan by providing information that will help DOTs develop further organizational excellence and effective services in knowing how to create the best risk communication strategies that will share risk information both internally and with external agencies and the public at large. Knowledge of risks will lead to better transportation products and services by helping to identify what aspects of transportation require improvement and safety enhancement. This will also lead to further examination of current and emerging trends present in transportation policies and practices, while promoting a range of new policy options that can be implemented. This project will align with AASHTO’s plan to provide safety, mobility, and access for everyone by providing blueprints for effective communication with external agencies and the public. By making the public aware of potential risks, and pursuing solutions to these risks, DOTs will be able ensure that social equity within the public sphere is preserved while transportation systems are made safer. Effective communication with community organizations, especially, will forge strong connections between transportation agencies with public interest.
The ability to effectively communicate risks both within an agency and externally to key stakeholders is important in decision-making and assuring effective mitigation strategies are assigned and appropriate resources are dedicated. Risk management is an effective tool for decision-making but communicating risks, potential impacts and likelihood of occurrence as well as appropriate mitigation is often not well understood.
This proposal builds off of a similar RPS developed as part of NCHRP 20-123(04) but adds in and emphasizes the element of visualization to improve communication. It also emphasizes the concept of risk tolerance.
Need to understand and demonstrate risk-tolerance associated with decision-making within agencies. This relates to both potential threats and opportunities.
This proposal builds on the draft problem statement outlined in the NCHRP 20-123(04). The background has been acceptably defined. The objectives should be modified to further emphasize risk perception and development of ways to assess and communicate risk tolerance.
Emphasis on developing tools and methodologies to document risk tolerance and acceptance parameters associated with taking risks.
State departments of transportation (DOTs) and other transportation agencies are working to deliver greater resiliency in their transportation systems. Agencies are changing established business processes, technical methodologies, tools, and systems to build resiliency. In order to achieve sustainable change and have lasting improvements in resiliency, agencies need to also address organizational culture in order to bring about greater enthusiasm and focus on resiliency building.
Organizational culture is defined as the underlying beliefs, assumptions, values and ways of interacting that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization. It focuses on building shared values to achieve the organization's goals and objectives. When transportation agencies have good organizational culture, employees know how agency executives want them to respond to any situation, employees believe that the expected response is the proper one, and employees know that they will be rewarded for demonstrating the organization's values.
Greater understanding of the elements of good organizational culture and how it can be applied to transportation agencies to achieve greater resiliency is needed. This research project would include identification of agencies that have had success in building resiliency and examine what elements of organizational change supported the successful resilience building. Research on sectors outside of transportation where resilience is important would be conducted to understand the organizational culture elements. The ingredients for building organizational culture to achieve greater focus on building resilience will be created for transportation agencies.
The proposed research be composed of the following components:
• Conduct a literature/practice review of the relevant information
• Identify organizational practices and determine how they can be generalized to support guidance
• Develop guidance for agencies
• Demonstrate/evaluate guidance through at least one case study
• Produce a final report including an executive summary
Both federal and recipient agencies have the goal of maximizing the public benefits from investment of the limited transportation funding. Additionally, there is a cost and/or risk to every activity or inaction related to program delivery. Whenever an available dollar is moved from physical or operational improvements on the system to program administration, the public loses the benefit of that dollar. Similarly, every dollar that is lost from the system because of fraud or diverted away from the program goals due to whatever form of mismanagement, the public loses the intended benefit of that dollar. Therefore, the goal of all agencies should be to minimize the negative risks and costs associated with administering the funding programs, even if that means the occasional dollar is lost to fraud or mismanagement when the cost to prevent that loss is greater than the cost of the loss itself. It seems especially important to avoid duplicative administrative costs generated from the various governmental levels. The essential issue is determining the end-user public return on investment (ROI) from adding program requirements for both the federal agency and the recipient agency.
Develop a means of determining the balance between program requirements that minimize the risks of fraud and/or of not meeting program goals with maximizing the benefits to the end users (i.e., the public).
In many cases, states and other local government agencies have performance measures developed through the extensive public outreach in the various federally and internally required strategic planning efforts. Not surprisingly, these “local” performance measures are often related to but different from the federally mandated performance measures.
For example, freight mobility in an urban area often means travel time (i.e., traditional congestion), similar to the federal system performance measures (PM3); however, in a rural area, it means the system’s ability to carry the desired loads (i.e., height, width, and load restrictions not meeting expectations causing loads to be rerouted over longer distances). In either case, the results are wasted time, money, and fuel, and more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Reducing this waste is really the goal of the federal measures above. Therefore, the same goal is being monitored, whether using the federal measures or the state and local (hereinafter, local) performance measures. This is just one example of many similarly developed local performance measures related to a national goal area but with different metrics and definitions than the national measures.
By definition, the local measures are important to the end users of the transportation system by virtue of being developed through public input. Therefore, local policymakers often want or require these measures to be used in the decision processes and to tell the local story of transportation performance, safety, condition, etc. (hereinafter, performance). It would reduce waste and improve public transparency if these local measures could also be used to tell the national system performance story. This would avoid potentially conflicting messages from local and national sources and avoid the duplicate work of collecting, monitoring, and analyzing similar measures related to the same basic goal. Additionally, the collective of local measures could be used to tell a more comprehensive and complete story of the nation’s overall movement toward its shared transportation goals through a “drill down” approach of providing greater and greater detail from the national level through the regional, state, and local community levels.
Keyword searches in the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) TRID and Research in Progress (RIP) systems were performed for research related to:
• Performance Measures, Communicating
• Communicating Performance
• “National Performance”
Several projects were found related to but not overlapping this proposed topic, with the newest one being a 2015 document specific to State Department of Transportation (DOT) performance story telling. The most relevant document was a 2011 periodical article titled “Measuring Infrastructure Performance: Development of a National Infrastructure Index.” However, not only is that article dated, but it does not address the underlying research question of if and how local measures, important to the public, can be used to tell a national story about national goals.
Develop a means of consolidating the many related local measures into a set of national measures that describes and monitors how well the national transportation system is meeting (or not meeting) the traveling public’s needs as related to Congress’ strategic goals for the nation’s transportation system.
The current system of detailed nationally-defined measures monitored and reported by States and MPOs, along with locally-mandated and -defined measures, yields state, local, and national messages to the public that are often conflicting or at least are not readily understandable to the public. Additionally, collecting data on related but different measures is a duplicative burden to States DOTs and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) that is wasteful of scarce resources. Therefore, if measures that are developed with close input from the transportation system end users could be collectively used to monitor the national system’s ability to meet strategic goals, the messages to the public would be more understandable and would come at a lower cost. On a national scale, that lower cost is likely to be a very substantial savings over the current framework, given the sheer number of reporting entities (i.e., State DOTs, MPOs, transit agencies, highway safety offices, etc.).
Complete implementation would likely require Congressional action through the transportation bill reauthorization because some federal measures are dictated in the current Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law). However, in most cases, implementation could be accomplished through the federal administrative rulemaking processes.
As funding for resource allocation increase and decrease each year it is critical for agencies to ensure that they are spending the resources the best they can and meeting as many needs as possible. The challenge of meeting condition needs vs operational needs vs quality of life is increasing each year for agencies. Thus, as agencies work each year to make resource allocation decisions for multiple service areas, and analysis the impacts of these decisions are often difficult to captured with performance measures. For example, condition measures for physical asset classes (pavements, bridges, etc.); performance measures for system operations (snow and ice control, traffic operations, emergency response) and quality of life measures (safety, accessibility, equity) are used by agencies to evaluate these resource allocations. State agencies generally have flexibility to adjust the level of investment of these categories, yet evaluation of the tradeoffs or optimization of these decisions are often limited to similar measures (bridge condition vs pavement condition). Is there potential benefit in expanding the scope of these analyses to include performance measures and investment classes of less similar nature. What tools do agencies use for this cross-asset allocation; How are the tools used for asset resource allocations to include services and quality of life investments?
Keyword searches in TRB’s TRID and RIP systems were performed for research related to:
• “Resource Allocation”
• “Cross Resource Allocation”
• “Cross Investment”
A search was also conducted on the Transportation Performance Management (TPM) Portal :
• Tools>Featured Tools>MODAT
The National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 806: Cross-Asset Resource Allocation and the Impact on Transportation System Performance developed a cross-asset resource allocation framework, a spreadsheet tool and guidance.
A subsequent project culminated in NCHRP Report 921:Case Studies in Cross-Asset, Multi-Objective Decision Analysis , which updated the NCHRP Report 806 spreadsheet tool and developed case studies illustrating multi-object decision analysis (MODA) applications. The Multi-Objective Decision Analysis Tool (MODAT) developed as part of this project helps prioritize candidate projects on a range of different objectives. MODAT can be accessed at: https://multiobjective.org/.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) also developed a web-based training (WBT) training curriculum for performance-based prioritization using Multi-Objective Decision Analysis (MODA). This training is intended to educate and expose practitioners to the use of MODA.
Indiana DOT is scoring all of their projects based upon 7 categories including safety, congestion, environment, regional and state economic contribution, Intermodal connectivity, and total cost of ownership. This synthesis would be an extension of the research started here, specifically providing additional case studies of states implementing cross-investment allocation and considering investment categories other than physical assets.
1. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Transportation Performance Management (TPM) Portal. https://www.tpm-portal.com/. Accessed June 2022.
2. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2015. NCHRP Report 806: Guide to Cross-Asset Resource Allocation and the Impact on Transportation System Performance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/22177.
3. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2019. NCHRP Report 921: Case Studies in Cross-Asset, Multi-Objective Resource Allocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25684
4. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. MODAT Tool. https://multiobjective.org. Accessed June 2022
5. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. “Performance-Based Prioritization Using Multi-Objective Decision Analysis (MODA). Web-Based Training. AASHTO Store. Washington DC. https://store.transportation.org/Item/TrainingDetail?ID=4506. Accessed June 2022
Investigate, compile, and categorize examples of organizations’ efforts of using performance measures and data supported tools for cross resource allocation and goal-oriented decisions.
As agencies make tough resourcing decisions every year, this synthesis would be useful to capture how the research products and tools described above are being used, along with any other methods state DOTs are using to make multi-objective resource allocation decisions. Research has shown that multi-objective resource allocation can be done. This synthesis could answer “Is it being done?” and if so, “How is it being done?”
The product of this research would be a synthesis of the practice, facilitating knowledge transfer to performance management practitioners.
Transportation agencies traditionally had a very steady workforce. The combination of changes in young people’s work patterns and the economic changes that drive workforce availability requires that agencies need to act more proactively on how to deliver transportation programs. Research is needed to understand the behavioral patterns and mechanisms to both mitigate variability in workforce availability and what can be done proactively to benefit the agency.
With the increased funding states are receiving based on the IIJA and BFP. NMDOT has identified the fact that we may run into contractor availability to meet the needs of the upcoming projects.
Several states have established offices to implement continuous improvement processes such as Lean, Design Thinking, or Change Management. Over 30 of these offices participate in the Transportation Lean Forum (TLF), an informal group that operates in association with the AASHTO Subcommittee on Organization Management. In addition to formal offices, some states make less formal “grass roots” efforts to improve their processes. A synthesis would conduct a side-by-side study of the states’ efforts, including efforts in states that are not participating in the TLF, find what is working and what is not, assist states to identify improvements that they might implement, and set a baseline of the current “state of the art” that could inform future research on the outcomes of these efforts.
Lean Improvement research questions:
Efficiency research questions:
Lean Improvement: Several DOTs have established offices to implement continuous improvement processes such as Lean, Design Thinking, or Change Management. These include a t least thirty US States, five Canadian Provinces, England, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
Efficiencies: Several state DOTs (e.g., CA, MN, OH) and England are required to submit annual efficiency reports.
(30 states + other agencies have initiatives). What can be learned from these efforts? For instance, in England, the focus is on construction-only. (Nigel)
Performance measurement and performance-based management have a long history in state DOTs as a discipline to track progress toward goals and optimize resource decisions. However, transportation agency goals are evolving from a pure operational focus to a focus on broad societal goals and creating value for the public. The value created by transportation investments spans not only transportation but also education, human services, land use, environment, and economy. A broader view of value and methods are needed to account for not only quantifiable value but also qualitative value. Another challenge is time horizons - how to value and manage investments today to deliver benefits in the much longer term. This research would develop and test measures of wider societal benefits deriving from the delivery of transportation investments.
Transportation agencies are required to use asset management systems, including pavement and bridge asset management systems, to comply with Federal requirements for developing asset management plans. These systems are valuable for supporting a number of business functions, including: analyzing the existing asset inventory and its condition; developing effective asset lifecycle strategies; determining resources required to maintain assets in good repair; and recommending priorities for asset treatments. However, a major challenge transportation agencies face is in using their asset management systems is in trying to develop realistic projects that utilize management system recommendations. The systems generally recommend specific treatments, but do not scope realistic projects. Thus, significant manual effort is required to review management system treatment recommendations, often from multiple systems, and combine these into candidate projects. Research is needed to determine how to extent existing asset management systems to better develop projects from the treatment recommendations these systems generate. Such research will help agencies better comply with Federal requirements, save staff time, and result in development of projects that best support agency asset lifecycle strategies and best practices.
Research is needed to determine how to extent existing asset management systems to better develop projects from the treatment recommendations these systems generate.
The proposed research would include the following tasks, at a minimum:
• Review of existing transportation asset management systems and the approaches agencies use for developing projects from management system treatment recommendations.
• Development of a framework for transportation asset project development. The framework should incorporate: asset lifecycle strategies, other investment objectives that may lie outside of existing asset management systems, such as improve equity, accessibility and mobility; major constraints and parameters related to development of projects; and other factors.
• Gap assessment to identify issues in current practice and opportunities for improvement.
• Development of prototype tools that supplement existing management system treatment recommendation to better support project development.
• Piloting the framework and tools with one or more transportation agencies.
• Development of a research report documenting the results of the research effort.
This research will help agencies better comply with Federal requirements, save staff time, and result in development of projects that best support agency asset lifecycle strategies and best practices.
All states are taking on resiliency in their asset management plans this year, and there are additional resilience-focused programs available from FHWA.
Aimee Flannery
Information To Be Gathered: To further the implementation of asset management beyond pavements and bridges, there is a desire to understand how different agencies are approaching the management of these assets.
• What data is being collected?
• What techniques are being used to collect the data?
• How is the data stored and managed?
• What programming decisions are being made with the data and who in the agency is making those decisions.
• How are these efforts tied to broader asset management, maintenance management, and capital programming within the agency?
How the Information Will Be Gathered: Information will be gathered through a literature review, a survey of state DOTs, and follow-up interviews with selected DOTs for the development of case examples. Information gaps and suggestions for research to address those gaps will be identified.
• FHWA’s Handbook for Including Ancillary Assets in Transportation Asset Management Programs (2019)
• FHWA’s Case Study 7 – Managing Assets Beyond Pavements and Bridges (2020)
• HIF-20-067 Case Study 7-Managing Assets Beyond Pavements and Bridges (TAMP Practices on Other Assets) (dot.gov)
Recent research has documented approaches to performing this work and several states have developed programs of differing levels of maturity. A Synthesis project at this time will enable agencies to understand the current state of the practice and identify leading practices that can be adopted to advance their own programs.
The purpose of this study is to research best practices and case studies of Transporta-tion Agency Organizational and Decision-Making Structure to shift from processes driven by planning, design, and construction to organizational structures driven by the need to maintain and operate an established, integrated system based on principles of asset management and transportation system operations.
NCHRP 08-138
www.agencycapability.com/library/nchrp-20-07-task-408-transportation-system-management-and-operations-tsmo-workforce-skills-positions-recruitment-retention-and-career-development/
www.tamguide.com/chapter/3-organization-and-people
www.trb.org/NCHRP/Pages/Report_to_AASHTO_TSO_775.aspx
· SHRP 2 Report S2-L06-RR1 “Institutional Architectures to Improve Systems Opera-tions and Management”
· FHWA-HOP-17-017 “Developing and Sustaining a Transportation Systems Man-agement and Operation Mission for Your Organization: A Primer for Program Plan-ning”
· NCHRP 08-138 (Pending) Guide to the Integration of Transportation Systems Management and Operations into Transportation Asset Management
To rethink how a transportation agency should be organized to maintain and operate an existing system in real time. That includes a focus on preservation and maintenance of existing assets, responding quickly and effectively to incidents and emergencies, and operating the system at an optimized level of service given funding constraints. The research will consider what systems and processes need to be in place to monitor conditions and operations, the role of maintenance and asset management in programming and project development, effective use of agency forces, budgeting for maintenance and replacement over the lifecycle, and how to manage risk as a compliment to resource constrained asset management strategies. The research will look at various public and private sector models that look at organizational structure, element driven contracting, funding allocation models, and the role of in house vs contract resources to maximize the cost effectiveness of resource investments.
Project objectives envision developing a synthesis using the following guidance:
1. Identify organizational practices that integrate maintenance and operational needs into capital planning processes.
2. Perform a domestic and international scan of how and what transportation agencies do organizationally to implement effective Asset Management and TSMO practices for holistic decision-making throughout the asset lifecycle.
3. Identify decision-making, communication, and organizational practices to in-clude all stakeholders in the lifecycle of the assets.
4. Identify project criteria and business practices that can be used for realizing improved transportation system performance over time. This includes how or-ganizations take into account maintainability, sustainability, resiliency and functional performance in the development, design and construction of pro-jects.
5. Develop case studies on how capital transportation projects are delivered and the problems that occur across functional areas. Agencies will be interviewed to determine root cause analysis of projects to evaluate both successes and problems with the long term lifecycle management of assets arising from poli-cies, organizational practices, and knowledge transfer and how that impacts an agency’s ability to maintain a state of good repair for new and existing assets.
6. Evaluate how federal funding mechanisms could be employed to fund mainte-nance needs of new and existing asset types arising out of capital project prior-itization.
7. Evaluate how agencies integrate performance targets and measures into their maintenance, operations, program management and asset management pro-cesses to drive decision making.
Asset management and transportation systems management and operations have become cornerstones of how transportation agencies prioritize how they maintain, op-erate and make capital improvements to their transportation systems. These have driven agencies to rethink how to develop their capital programs, how decisions are made and who is involved at various levels of decision making. The goal of this re-search is to share effective practices within agencies for the benefit of the overall in-dustry.
The purpose of this is to research case studies to help agencies improve their own de-cision-making processes with regards to asset management and TSMO.
Financial risks can threaten the strategic objectives of transportation agencies - e.g., the safe and reliable and efficient movement of people and goods. For example, the Highway Trust Fund is tied to taxes on gas and diesel. However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic greatly reduced American consumption, thus dramatically reducing revenues. State DOTs have seen their budgets slashed by 30% or more, forcing delays in some projects. Furthermore, external mandates can impose both risks and opportunites. A well-funded mandate could mean state DOTs have additional funding for enhancing resilience, while an unfunded mandate could force a DOT to choose between maintenance and projects. The objective of this project is to help transportation leaders with decision-making tools for allocating limited resources when subjected to unpredicatable financial conditions.
This research need was recommended and prioritized through multiple stakeholder engagements during the 20-123 project. No related literature was found that incorporated financial risk at the enterprise and program levels. In addition, the recent COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the consequences of income and financial instability in transportation agencies.
The importance of incorporating risk at the enterprise and program levels has been recognized, and AASHTO published a guide summarizing how DOTs can establish and benefit from an enterprise risk management (ERM) program (AASHTO Guide for Enterprise Risk Management, 2016). This guide divides risk into four levels: enterprise, program, project, and activity. Risks to the enterprise are identified as the risks that affect the organization and its strategic objectives; while risk to the program includes risks that are “common to group of projects that achieve strategic goals” or those that “could affect the performance of major programs such as safety, pavements, bridges, maintenance, information technology, local programs, project delivery, finance, and human resources”. The guide provides an overview on what enterprise risk management is, highlights the benefits, and also includes information of how to identify, assess and manage those risks. However, further guidance and methodologies on how to assess and manage financial risks at the enterprise and program levels are still needed.
The purpose of the proposed research project is to provide state DOTs with the necessary tools to assess and manage financial risk at the enterprise and program levels.
The specific research tasks to accomplish the main objective include:
• Task 1 – Conduct an in-depth literature review of all studies related to assessment and management of financial risks in transportation agencies, especially at the enterprise and program levels, including national and international examples as available.
• Task 2 – Conduct a gap assessment of the state of practice to determine what is still needed to incorporate financial risk at the enterprise and program levels.
• Task 3 – Develop a methodology for identifying and quantifying financial risks at the enterprise and program levels.
• Task 4 – Develop metrics and performance indicators for evaluating effectiveness of financial risk countermeasures.
• Task 5 – Develop decision-making tools for resource allocation under conditions of financial uncertainty.
• Task 6 – Develop methodology and guidance on consideration of program and potentially project-level financial risk within the enterprise.
• Task 7 – Pilot test the developed processes with multiple state DOTs and revised methodology as needed.
• Task 8 – Develop an implementation guide to help state DOTs to incorporate these processes into existing agency programs and projects.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic greatly reduced American consumption, thus dramatically reducing revenues. State DOTs have seen their budgets slashed by 30% or more, forcing delays in some projects and reductions in workforce. A well-funded mandate could mean state DOTs have additional funding for enhancing resilience, while an unfunded mandate could force a DOT to choose between maintenance and projects. Not having the necessary funding for certain programs or projects may have a short or long term negative impacts on agency mission (e.g., lack of funding to continue or improve safety programs).
This project aims to provide transportation leaders with the necessary decision-making tools for allocating resources when subjected to unpredicatable financial conditions in order to reduce risks and increase the return on investment (ROI).
In order to implement financial risk assessments at the enterprise level, senior executives and policy makers need to take the lead and champion these initiatives.
Similarly, program managers need to take the major role on encouraging the implementation of financial risk assessments into program level.
It is key that senior executives, policy makers and program managers need to have a communication plan to communicate with peers on their areas in order to assess the financial risks to multiple programs and/or projects that may affect each other. In addition, providing staff training on the subject of financial risk, especially at the enterprise and program levels, is a key factor on successful implementation. Training material (including guidance, workshops, peer exchanges, etc.) to help implementation champions should be developed and used to create awareness and facilitate assessments.
Rank 5 in 2021
Started from War Games topics, planning to submit to the Domestic Scan Program
• Focused on how do we integrate accepted best practice learnings and revisit our organizational mission across sectors to create a more safe, equitable society?
• Currently researching organizational missions, emerging performance areas, and equity plans within organizations before next meeting
Areas we may want to include:
- Organizational components that have been successful (for example)
- Organizational factors
- Risk management approaches
- Innovative strategies
- Stakeholder partnership (more than engagement)
- Successful support systems
- Strategic frameworks - organizational missions
- Performance management systems
- Equity plans, etc.
- Types of leadership exhibited in high-performing agencies
Also consider barriers to addressing societal needs, how leading agencies have overcome these challenges (for example):
- Rapid pace of change
- Complex, sometimes conflicting social pressures
- Funding
- Politics
- Other?
Process
- I.D. promising practices
- Assess likelihood of reproducing these results
- Investigate issues, assess tech transfer opportunities and methods
- Document results
Emerging technologies, such as the use of drones for inspections, LiDAR field data collection, and continuous monitoring of real-time sensor data (among others), hold the promise of transforming asset data collection for transportation asset management. As this technology has been evolving and improving, federal regulation, specifically, MAP-21 and the FAST Act, has pushed many agencies to collect and utilize a detailed inventory of infrastructure assets and transportation data. With the collection of high-volume asset inventory and condition data, such as LiDAR point cloud data, the accessibility and affordability of data collection has become a clear issue for agencies, particularly as they aim to manage and visualize collected data for both strategic and operational transportation asset management planning purposes. Therefore, research and guidance on the benefits and applications of these emerging technologies as well as how frequently that inventory and condition data need to be collected or assessed is necessary.
The focus of this research would be on the following:
• Address the adoption and practical application of these emerging collection technologies and the rapid pace of technological advancement.
• Provide guidance on the level of detail and frequency interval necessary for data collection to support TAM at both the state and local levels.
• Determine how condition assessment can be applied to the performance measures of both pavement and non-pavement assets.
• Further investigate and recommend tools capable of visualizing asset extraction layers, as well as presenting data to stakeholders in powerful GIS formats with standardized TAM graphics for universal interpretation.
• The research should consider any refinements that would need to occur in network level asset management data collection to make the data useful for compliance (i.e. ADA), safety (i.e. bridge clearances) or engineering (design or construction) purposes.
• PROJECT: Best Practices on Collecting Asset Information from the Construction Stage, South Carolina Department of Transportation, 2021, Proposed 2021-10-01
• PROJECT: Automated Guardrail Inventory and Condition Evaluation, Massachusetts Department of Transportation, 2021, Active 2021-01-18
• Highway Asset and Pavement Condition Management using Mobile Photogrammetry, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2021
• Automated Real-Time Roadway Asset Inventory using Artificial Intelligence, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Volume 2674, Issue 11, 2020, pp 220-234, 2020-11
• Computer Vision for Rapid Updating of the Highway Asset Inventory, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Volume 2674, Issue 9, 2020, pp 245-255, 2020-09
• GIS Tools and Apps—Integration with Asset Management, 2020, 155p, 2020-02
• PROJECT: A Method for Pavement Marking Inventory and Retroreflectivity Condition Assessment Using Mobile LiDAR, Massachusetts Department of Transportation, $200,000, 2019, Active, 2019-10-21
• SCDOT Asset Data Collection Assessment, 2019, 99, 2019-08
• PROJECT: GIS Tools and Applications: Integration with Asset Management, Minnesota Department of Transportation, $59,021.12, 2019, Completed, 2019-04-19
• Novel Cloud and Mobile Technology for Road Asset Management in Saint Lucia, 26th World Road Congress, 2019, 9, 2019
• Implementation of Road Asset Management System in Saint Lucia, 26th World Road Congress, 2019, 16, 2019
• Innovative Approaches to Asset Management, 2019, 110, 2019
• Machine Learning Powered Roadside Asset Extraction using LiDAR, TAC 2018: Innovation and Technology: Evolving Transportation - 2018 Conference and Exhibition of the Transportation Association of Canada, 2018
• Life-Cycle Approach to Collecting, Managing, and Sharing Transportation Infrastructure Asset Data, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Volume 143, Issue 6, 2017-06
• Highway Asset Inventory Data Collection Using Airborne LiDAR, Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting, 2017, 15
• Evaluation of High-Speed Mobile Technologies for Sign Inventory and Maintenance, Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting, 2017, 13, 2017
• Implementation of Aerial LiDAR Technology to Update Highway Feature Inventory, 2016, 133, 2016-12
• Guide for Efficient Geospatial Data Acquisition using LiDAR Surveying Technology, 2016, 12, 2016
• LEVERAGING CONSTRUCTION INSPECTION AND DOCUMENTATION FOR ASSET INVENTORY AND LIFE CYCLE ASSET MANAGEMENT Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting, 2016, 20, 2016
• Handbook For Including Ancillary Assets in Transportation Asset Management Programs, Federal Highway Administration, 2018
Working backward from the key decisions that need to be made across stakeholder groups over an asset’s lifecycle, this project seeks to identify current practices and recommend ongoing improvements in relation to collecting, storing, sharing, and maintaining asset inventory and condition data (“data management”). With a focus on implementation, the project will build on existing research by identifying the pros and cons of different data management methods and technologies, so that decision makers across departments can collaborate more effectively when planning and investing in data management approaches. The practice of data management is evolving at a rapid pace, given the proliferation of new technologies that are being used increasingly alongside traditional approaches. In parallel, agencies are recognizing the multi-stakeholder nature of asset management, as departments such as compliance, safety, engineering, operations and environmental begin to see the benefits of access to reliable, accurate asset information. This project will answer key data management questions such as: What data should be collected to address all stakeholder needs? How, when, and how often? Using which technologies and platforms? At what cost? And why?
It will also provide guidance to agencies on the most appropriate approaches to collecting, storing, sharing and maintaining asset data, based on the needs of the various stakeholders involved in data-based decision-making.
Inventory and condition data collection and data management are continuously changing in response to changing demands of state and local agencies. However, despite these changing demands, inventory data is constantly being used by multiple stakeholders to make decisions (planning, operations, safety, contractors). While the inventory data may not necessarily be accurate or timely due to these agency constraints or because the agency’s collection processes lack maturity (i.e. ancillary assets), this data is still being used to make decisions at all levels within an agency, yet there is little consensus on how to manage data related to those assets.
The benefits of this research are that it will provide a complete view of inventory and condition issues across asset classes; support agencies with lessons learned from others (from data collection to post-processing/extraction and related decision making) and enable collaboration on new approaches, particularly for secondary asset data management; support implementation of TAMPs by helping to ensure data is reliable and accurate; support preparation for emerging technologies such as CAVES, which will be dependent on secondary assets, such as striping, roadside units (RSUs) and signals.
Methods to incorporate products into practice:
- Web-based training for agency staff
- Case studies from peer agencies
- Assessment of existing technologies including functionalities, pros/cons, and costs
Intended audience:
- Decision makers at all organizational levels and across departments/disciplines
- Contractor and consultant community
Emerging technologies hold the promise of transforming asset data collection for transportation asset management such as the use of drones for inspections, LiDAR field data collection, continuous monitoring of real-time sensor data, and more. While the technology has been transforming, MAP-21 and the Fast Act jump started at many agencies in attaining an inventory of infrastructure assets and transportation data. At the same time, accessibility and affordability to collect high volumes of asset inventory data, such as LiDAR point cloud data, present the problem of how agencies can visualize and manage such large amounts of data and integrate the many layers for each transportation asset management plan. Now that the need for such data is federally recognized, further research is needed to understand what the latest technologies for asset analysis can offer an agency as well as how frequently that information needs generated.
Research is needed in the following areas:
• Address the adoption and practical application of these technologies and the rapid pace of technological advancement.
• What level of extraction detail and frequency interval is needed to support TAM at both the state and local levels and how can the condition assessment be applied to the performance measures of both pavement and non-pavement assets?
• Further investigate what tools are capable of visualizing asset extraction layers, as well as presenting such data to all stakeholders in powerful GIS formats with standardized TAM graphics for universal interpretation.
This is a typical function of an AMS, in which different asset classes, such as different types of roads (interstate, state, local, or possibly differentiated by traffic volumes), bridges, etc are allocated different treatments and possibly different budgets per asset class. This synthesis could be both a panel study (cross-section of states) and a time series study (how the policies developed over time), and could also involve systems which use life cycle costing and those which do not.
Among the many difficulties raised by COVID-19, the pandemic does have the potential of affecting asset management practices in diverse ways. On the one hand, reduced traffic might reduce road maintenance costs; on the other hand, ordering more goods might increase truck traffic and thus increase deterioration. Even if deterioration were the same, the road agency would always have the option of utilizing a less expensive treatment alternative and thus reduce the capital needs and maintenance budget.
● FHWA case study on fiscal management during pandemic (focus on accomplishing work opportunistically vs. narrow risk-management focus)
● 2020 State DOT COVID-19 Response Survey: Use of Transportation Data and Information for Decision Makers https://www.tam-portal.com/document/dot-covid19-data-survey/
● Survey and interview State DOTs and others as to their practices during COVID. For example: observe their budget outlays, activities performed and data collection.
● Focus on uncertainty in general - such as funding uncertainty; the results could be utilized for good practices not just in times of widespread disease, but also for times of economic austerity such as a recession. Note: The visualization committee (AED80) has been kicking around a research idea related to how to VISUALIZE uncertainty. Could be a good opportunity to collaborate with that TRB committee. Anne-Marie McDonell and Matt Haubrich are both on AED80 so feel free to reach out.
● Potential to focus on risk management with respect to federal TPM target-setting (rather than risk management with respect to funding uncertainty).
Question of understanding impacts vs. position for post-pandemic
Several economic optimization methods are linked with TAM project selections. One of the economic indicators in measuring them is the ROI (which can be defined in various ways), but there are others such as NPV, IBC, FYRR and more. This research needs statement refers to the need of connecting prioritization / different approaches to asset management (such as optimization) and TAM project selections and economic indicators.
There are several known methods of estimating the maintenance backlog – via budget (raising the network to a given level within a given number of years), length or percentage of the network under a given maintenance standard (such as PCI, PSI, IRI or other indicator),
This question is usually dealt with in road assets but can be expanded to bridges and other assets as well. It is part of a life cycle cost analysis when the evaluation is performed on different treatments which are differentiated by their frequency (usually every X years) and thus influencing their cost. Many Asset Management Systems incorporate this kind of analysis.
A State DOT Transportation Asset Management Plan (TAMP) documents the investment strategies and expected outcomes from various asset classes, starting with the bridges and pavement of the National Highway System. The State DOT TAMP does not replace any existing state transportation plan (e.g., LRTP, freight plan, operations plan, etc.) but does provide critical inputs to existing plans, linking capital and maintenance expenditures related to asset preservation.
At the same time that state DOTs were developing their TAMPs, states also implemented a performance-based planning and programming approach, which applies performance management principles to transportation system policy and investment decisions. Performance-based long range transportation plans, statewide transportation improvement programs (STIPs), metropolitan planning organization (MPO) TIPs, and other performance-based plans like state freight plans must define key goals and objectives and establish measures to analyze short-, medium, and long-term implementation progress.
This Synthesis should review the advancement of State DOTs and MPOs to implement performance-based planning and programming with the help of implementation plans like the TAMP and documented processes for planning, investing, and evaluating performance outcomes.
• NCHRP 08-113 Integrating Effective Transportation Performance, Risk, and Asset Management Practices
• NCHRP 02-27: Making Targets Matter….engagement for meaningful performance management
• A Guide for Incorporating Maintenance Costs into a Transportation Asset Management Plan
• Incorporating Resilience Considerations in Transportation Planning, TSMO and Asset Management
• Effective Methods for Setting Transportation Performance Targets
• Synthesis of Information Related to Highway Practices. Topic 51-05. Collaborative Practices for Performance-Based Asset Management Between State DOTs and MPOs
• FHWA review of 2019 State DOT Transportation Asset Management Plans (internal)
The objective of this synthesis is to identify best practices from State DOTs of how to improve processes through required performance-based planning and programming document development and implementation through exploring:
• How State DOTs and MPOs are linking and including asset management decisions in their traditional planning processes;
• How agency’s integrate asset management project identification and prioritization into required planning processes;
• Gap analyses of where State DOTs and MPOs identify a need for more guidance on how to connect required performance-based documents to programming decisions;
• What management systems are in use to help agencies implement risk-based asset management with performance objectives and targets.
• Examples of where MPOs work in partnership with State DOTs to mobilize National Highway System partner owners (local agencies) to plan/program to performance targets.
Benefits of this research include improved coordination between state DOTs, MPOs, and local transportation agencies through the development of performance-based planning and programming documents and implementation of PBPP project prioritization. Benefits may include improved sharing of data, efficient use of existing systems and identification of needed systems, and risk-based asset management of the system.
Anna Batista
High Street Consulting Group
240.252.5111 x106
Question whether this topic should wait until the results of NCHRP Project 08-113 Integrating Effective Transportation Performance, Risk, and Asset Management Practices are released. They are covering similar topics, though the current research statement seems to be more focused on the federal TAMP/ TPM while 08-113 is about AM/ Perf Mgmt more generally
Research is needed on the importance of data governance from the conception of a project’s data dictionary, through the inventory and condition assessment and continuing with the data management and integration into transportation asset management systems. A question worth pursuing is whether all aspects of language, wording, numbering, and measurement units should be standardized or if template guides could be developed for each agency to standardize their unique asset type requirements, but in a nationally recognized format for easy translation.
After establishing governance routines for asset data collection and management, the next phase of research would involve the security aspects of an agency’s data as well as the quality assurance measures applicable to grow confidence in the data’s quality. A full review of best practices for data security procedures could break the barrier of IT to asset manager. Additionally, once definitions and governance procedures are established, the quality assurance process becomes more stream-lined and gives better confidence to the decision makers.
● FHWA - Identifying Data Frameworks & Governance for Establishing Future BIM Standards
● AED80 has a subcommittee on BIM, who has a sub-sub committee on BIM & AM
● PIARC TC 3.3 has a group working on TAM/BIM integration.
● NCHRP Report 831: Civil Integrated Management (CIM) for DOTs.
● Guidance on establishing BIM data governance and quality standards to support asset management.
● Recommend standards for data transfer between data collection and asset management systems.
● Develop maturity scales for BIM implementation and establish appropriate maturity level for integration of TAM
● Research on BIM applications to support DOTs' data governance specific to the collection of data by one part of the agency can be used directly by other parts of the agency
● Evaluate cost effectiveness of collecting and managing data through BIM at a sufficient level of quality.
● Aligning the focused but detailed project-level data with network-wide but less detailed TAM data.
TRB Research Ideas – Data Quality/Standardization
• Data quality and confidence
• standardize terminology between different systems so singles source can inform GIS/500 reports/DELPHI/FMIS etc. so reports all use the same words or numbers the same way
• Updated asset type definitions and extraction methodologies.
• Performance Metrics for Assets other than pavement and bridge, i.e.. signals, signs, barriers, culverts
• Asset ratings biases, potential to rate lower to obtain funding
TRB Research Ideas – Data Governance
• Our largest challenge is data governance, feature collection and maintaining asset/inventory data
• Data governance is still looming large from an implementation perspective
• Data history, implementation and its security (both cyber and other forms of security)
Due to external stakeholder requirements and expectations (e.g., MAP 21 and FAST Acts) as well as internal DOT uses, DOTs typically collect pavement condition data (i.e., roughness, cracking and rutting or faulting depending on the pavement surfaces) on an annual cycle. However, disruptions of typical agency activities related to COVID-19 have resulted in data collection challenges, focusing attention on potential impacts of missing a data collection cycle. DOT may also face unforeseen workforce, contracting, data collection or processing challenges or other issues which could result in missed pavement data collection. In these cases, DOTs would benefit from understanding the range of potential impacts as well as potential mitigation strategies available to address these issues. Furthermore, in times of reduced budget, DOTs may desire to reduce the frequency of data collection, however they should be informed of the potential impacts of that decision.
In the recent past, the FHWA sponsored a project which resulted in publications analyzing the impact of pavement monitoring frequency on pavement performance prediction and management system decisions (Haider et al. 2010, 2011). This study analyzed pavement sections from the Long Term Pavement Performance database and recommended monitoring cracking at a 1-year interval and roughness every 1 to 2 years. The proposed study will further investigate this issue and expand the analysis on the implications of missing a data collection cycle in their transportation management plans. Given that the FHWA reporting requirements are fairly recent, there is not much in the transportation literature about the impact of missing a data collection cycle. Furthermore, little information is available on potential strategies available to mitigate the impact of incomplete condition data.
1. Evaluate the impacts of incomplete/missing annual pavement data collection to various aspects of agency asset and performance management, including technical considerations, such as network-level condition summary and performance forecast, maintenance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction decision-making, and condition deterioration and treatment improvement modeling.
2. Consider the effect of incomplete/missing data on the organization and processes, such as federal performance reporting and transportation asset management planning requirements, as well as impacts to other internal and external stakeholders and decision-making processes.
3. Analyze and derive recommendations on mitigation strategies that DOT could implement to minimize the impact of incomplete condition data.
Proposed research activities include:
1. Conduct a literature review to document:
○ DOT motivations and/or requirements for annual data collection.
○ Potential technical and organizational impacts or issues associated with missing an annual data collection.
○ Techniques available to mitigate the impacts of missing the collection.
○ DOTs known to currently (or in the recent past) complete pavement data collection on a 2 or more year data collection cycle.
2. Building from the literature review, survey State DOTs to capture:
○ DOT motivations and/or requirements for annual data collection
○ Potential technical and organizational impacts or issues associated with missing an annual data collection
○ Techniques available to mitigate the impacts of missing the collection.
○ DOTs that currently (or recently) collected pavement data on a 2 or more year data collection cycle
○ DOTs which have previously missed their established collection cycle
3. Conduct follow up interviews/surveys with DOTs that have longer collection cycles or which had previously missed an annual pavement data collection to understand perceived vs. actual impacts (both technical and organizational) and any mitigation strategies they employ.
4. Summarize literature review, survey results and follow up interviews to guide ongoing research activities
5. From a representative set of DOTs, collect available pavement condition and work history data, pavement deterioration and improvement benefit models
6. Utilize collected data to complete a statistical evaluation of the impact missing a year of data collection with respect to forecasted vs. actual performance results, and ability to identify priority investment areas based on previous year’s data collection, as well as other issues identified through the survey
7. Identify potential strategies to mitigate the impacts of incomplete condition data
8. Document survey results and evaluation outcomes
9. Produce a technical report summarizing impacts of, and potential mitigations for, missing an annual pavement collection cycle
Desired products include:
● Detailed listing of current requirements and/or motivations for annual pavement data collection
● Summary of perceived and actual impacts of missing an annual data collection against the listed motivations, supported with a statistical evaluation of actual DOT datasets where applicable
● A summary of potential mitigation strategies that can be employed to reduce the identified impacts
State DOTs perform data collection with a certain frequency based on the data condition type. Due to the unpredicted situation we are facing in 2020 many DOTs have missed their data collection schedule and this would directly affect the uncertainties and potential emerging risks in asset management. State DOTs need effective ways to address this incompletion in data to improve their ability in decision-making and ultimately continue their asset management plans. Studies have shown that monitoring intervals and data collection frequency have an effect on performance predictions. A part of the uncertainty in performance prediction is due to the frequency of distress data collection.
Data curing methods could significantly help state DOTs use their previous data to forecast the missing ones. Private industries can help state DOTs perform data curing and data mining strategies. COVID-19 has caused a pause in asset management procedures, however the gap in data collection can be filled with the improvement in machine-learning products. It is therefore increasingly important for state DOTs to benefit from the technology-based services private industries offer and decrease the risk of incomplete data.
The target audience for the research results is state DOT asset management and data quality management champions, whether self-designated or officially appointed. These individuals are likely already on board with the need for data curing and are aware of its benefits, but have been unable to convince executives or other senior decision-makers to sustainably implement data curing. There is a need for AASHTO and TRB committees to embrace the need for data curing. There is a possibility that TRB’s Pavement Management System committee will be interested in this subject, it is worth contacting them and explaining the objectives.
Recommended funding of $250,000 includes $225,000 for a half-time investigator for 18 months.
TAM and TPM provide the foundation for performance-based investment decisions in transportation agencies at the federal, state, and local levels. Despite the fact that many transportation agencies have embraced the implementation of robust TAM and TPM programs to support their stewardship responsibilities, these topics are not typically incorporated into traditional education programs. In many cases, practitioners working in these areas acquire the skills needed while working on the job or take advantage of training materials available through various sources with limited support. Challenges with attaining skills, building competencies in an organization are compounded by knowledge succession needs with an aging workforce, tighter budgets, and uncertain in-person opportunities during an on-going pandemic, as well as evolving career expectations from skilled candidates in a globally competitive digital economy. A more accessible, efficient and attractive landscape of offerings, programs and career paths are needed to tackle the spectrum of training needs and challenges for effective TAM and TPM.
This study will explore cross-functional, multidisciplinary competencies, training needs in the TAM and TPM areas so that funding can be sought to streamline usage of existing opportunities, better integrate TAM and TPM principles within available programs, identify new skills needs driven by emerging risks or advancing technology, develop new training programs and partnerships needed. This also includes gaining an understanding of flexible, inclusive career paths to support innovation and productivity while improving return on training investment in a time of economic recovery. The study will inform AASHTO and TRB committees of existing gaps in training and recommend a strategy for addressing the gaps through a separate research study.
It is anticipated that this scoping study would be part of a three-phase research project:
• Phase I: Scoping Study for Developing an Education, Training and Workforce Development Program for TPM and TAM (this project)
• Phase II: Prototype and Testing of TPM/TAM Education, Training and Workforce Tools and Resources
• Phase III: Formal Development and Ongoing Support of TPM/TAM Education, Training and Workforce Tools and Resources
Task 1: Define TPM and TAM Training and Education Needs
• Conduct a contextual and comprehensive analysis of the training needs for practitioners in TPM and TAM.
• Assess the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by practitioners to perform their jobs well.
• Consider delivery methods in addressing needs.
Task 2: Conduct a Gap Analysis
• Summarize available training programs/materials in the US and abroad (notably Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand) and through other resources.
• Identify gaps between desired outcomes and current outcomes from available training and education.
Task 3: Develop Recommendations
• Summarize the findings from task 1 and 2.
• Recommend strategies for addressing the gaps.
• Present findings and recommendation in a final report.
• Prepare a Research Problem Statement(s) to develop the recommendations.
• Meet with the project panel to discuss recommendations.
• Incorporate changes into a final version of the report.
AASHTO TC3 Program
Better define the needs for education, training and workforce development related to transportation asset management and transportation performance management. Develop resources as needed for the following sub-areas:
Education—Writing curriculum for undergraduate and graduate courses
Training—For DOT and MPO staff in-depth career training, NHI, etc.
Workforce Development—e.g., TC3
No more than 15 months to complete the scoping study.
Additional time needed to establish the project with NCHRP.
Implementation of NCHRP 08-118: Risk Assessment Techniques for Transportation Asset Management
Implementation of NCHRP 08-129: Incorporating Resilience Concepts and Strategies in Transportation Planning
Determining the value of a transportation organization’s physical assets is important for both financial reporting and transportation asset management (TAM). In financial reporting, determining asset value is a fundamental step in preparing a balance sheet for financial statements to inform regulators and investors. For TAM, presenting data on the value of physical assets, such as pavement, bridges, and facilities, communicates what an organization owns and what it must maintain. Furthermore, information about asset value and how it is changing can help establish how the organization is maintaining its asset inventory and helps support investment decisions.
Calculating asset value for TAM is not simply good practice; it is also required of state Departments of Transportation (DOT) by Federal regulations. Title 23 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 515 details requirements for State DOTs to develop a risk-based Transportation Asset Management Plan (TAMP). The TAMP must include a calculation of the value of National Highway System (NHS) pavement and bridges, as well as the cost to maintain asset value.
Recently NCHRP Project 23-06 was performed to develop guidance for calculating asset value to support TAM applications. This research resulted in the development of the Asset Valuation Guide. This document is intended as a companion publication to the Transportation Asset Management Guide published by AASHTO. The Guide is accompanied by a web tool with an online version of the guidance. The guidance was developed to provide immediate support to highway and transit agencies developing their 2022 TAMPs, and to provide continuing support for other TAM-related applications.
The NCHRP 23-06 research project that produced the asset valuation guide included an extensive review of the available literature related to asset valuation. Key references include:
• Accounting guidance and standards, including General Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 34, standards of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS) and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) guide Measuring Capital.
• Asset management guidance, including the AASHTO TAM Guide, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) TAM guidance, and Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) Infrastructure Management Manual and Australian Infrastructure Financial Management Manual.
• Additional documents describing approaches used or proposed for asset valuation, such as State DOT TAMPs and other references.
Other research projects (recently completed, active, or pending) in this area include:
• NCHRP Project 08-109: Updating the AASHTO Transportation Asset Management Guide—A Focus on Implementation, Phase 1
• NCHRP Project 08-137: Digital Enhancements and Content for the AASHTO Transportation Asset Management Guide
• NCHRP Project 19-12: Guide for Financial Planning and Management in Support of Transportation Asset Management
• NCHRP Project 02-26: Implementation of Life-Cycle Planning Analysis in a Transportation Asset Management Framework.
This proposed study will build on these recent efforts and serve to provide updated asset valuation guidance.
The objective of this implementation project support further testing and use of Asset Valuation Guide developed through NCHRP Project 23-06. This project will aid a set of transportation agencies in implementing the asset valuation guidance. A set of case studies will be developed based on the agency implementation efforts. Details on the case studies will be added to the web-based version of the asset valuation guidance and subsequent versions of the Asset Valuation Guide. Further, the web and printed versions of the Guide will be revised to reflect the additional experience gained from the case studies.
To support accomplishing the research objectives the effort will incorporate the following activities at a minimum:
• Delivery of a set of workshops to review and summarize the Asset Valuation Guide.
• Identification of a set of six transportation agencies to participate in implementation of the asset valuation guidance.
• Application of the asset valuation guidance for the selected set of agencies, resulting in calculation of asset value by asset class, the cost to maintain asset value and related measures such as the Asset Consumption Ratio, Asset Sustainability Ratio and Asset Funding Ratio.
• Illustration of how information on asset value can support improved TAM decisions.
• Refinement of the Asset Valuation Guide (printed and web versions) based on the results of the case studies.
• Development of supplemental tools and worksheets to assist in calculating asset value to support TAM utilize the Asset Valuation Guide.
The proposed research is needed to help transportation agencies meet Federal requirements for developing their TAMPs. It will help build on recently completed NCHRP research and maximize the value of the research to the transportation community. Benefits of the research will include:
• Dissemination of the research completed previously through NCHRP Project 23-06.
• Assistance with a selected set of transportation agencies in valuing their assets to support TAM using the previously developed asset valuation guidance.
• Refinement of the Asset Valuation Guide to reflect experience gained from implementation
• Strengthening transportation agency TAM practice to include improved calculations of asset value and additional measures related to asset value that will help support TAM decisions.
The target audience for this research includes executives, managers, and practitioners at state DOTs and at other agencies working to implement TAM and/or prepare financial plans and reports. It will be of value for asset managers, planners, and financial analysts. The guidance will be useful for helping establish asset value and related measures for asset classes including pavement, bridges, other structures, buildings, vehicles (including service vehicles, transit vehicles and ferries), rail track, traffic and safety assets, and other assets.
The results of this research will be highly applicable to the efforts of DOTs and national organizations such as AASHTO and FHWA in furthering the maturity of TAM and improving their approaches for TAMP development and financial reporting. It will help provide practical advice and overall guidance to agencies on how to value their assets regardless of their individual asset contexts, conditions, or budgetary situation.
This program will establish a series of individual research projects born out of NCHRP 23-09, Scoping Study to Develop the Basis for a Highway Standard to Conduct an All-Hazards Risk and Resilience Analysis. Similar to other NCHRP research programs such as NCHRP 20-102, Impacts of Connected Vehicles and Automated Vehicles on State and Local Transportation Agencies, this is a long-term research program that will result in an industry standard for all-hazards risk and resilience analysis for use in decision-making. The product of this research program will be a collection of tools and techniques that transportation agencies can for all-hazards risk and resilience analysis similar to what has been produced for the Highway Capacity Manual and the Highway Safety Manual.
Integrating Risk and Resilience into the Performance Management Decision-Making Process
Evaluate and assess the existing national-level performance measure requirements for asset management at the state level to determine applicability and usability of PM measures in asset management decision making. As appropriate, provide recommendations and refinement of the performance measures for better use an application.
1. Evaluate current federal PM2 measures, both pavement condition measures and bridge measures, for performance thresholds, and overall performance measure with respect to: Consistency, Usefulness, and Alignment.
2. Identify and address in detail specific challenges for each condition measure for consistency, including thresholds. For example, determine if wheel path cracking considerations could be revised to provide more consistent results across pavement types (e.g. composite, concrete) and pavement widths (e.g. <12 ft.) 3. Provide recommendations to improve existing measures and/or identify metrics that better reflect conditions enhance decision-making taking into account not only the assessment of current and future condition but also their implications in economic analyses of long-term maintenance and rehabilitation.
NCHRP 20-24(20), 20-24 (97), 20-24 (127)
NCHRP 20-24(37): This project, Measuring Performance among State DOTs: Sharing Good Practices, put in place a foundation on which the first set of national performance measures were created. A similar program needs to established on which to further develop relevant national-level performance measures.
State departments of transportation (DOT) and other transportation agencies face a range of challenges in determining how best to invest in their existing pavements, bridges, and other physical assets, and in projecting what the impact of those investments will be over time. Addressing these challenges requires considering both specific planned or potential investments at a project or asset level, as well as overall expenditures and conditions for systems of assets – that is, at a network level. Evaluating assets at both the project and network levels is consistent with best practice in Transportation Asset Management (TAM), and is required by recent Federal regulations in performance and asset management. For instance, 23 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 490 requires state DOTs to set network-level performance targets for future pavement and bridge conditions for the National Highway System (NHS) based on expected funding. Also, 23 CFR Part 515 requires state DOTs to develop TAM plans for their NHS pavements and bridges including financial plans and investment strategies, implying further project-level analysis.
As transportation agencies are using their existing pavement and bridge management systems, they are finding that no one management system supports the full range of network and project-level analyses required to meet the demands of TAM practice and Federal regulations. Thus, to support TAM and meet Federal requirements agencies typically rely on multiple systems and approaches with different data requirements, analytical approaches and underlying assumptions. A common approach is to use pavement and bridge management systems to predict network-level conditions, typically projecting conditions out 10 or more years in the future, while making near-term project level decisions in a more decentralized manner using mix of expert judgment and heuristic approaches. In concept the network-level analysis can be used to guide project-level decisions, and specific project plans can often be incorporated in a network level analysis. However, in practice the network and project-level analyses are often performed largely independently from one another incorporating different data, factors and constraints.
The approach of using multiple approaches for network and project level asset analyses has numerous pitfalls. These include, but are not limited to: generating unrealistic predictions of network level conditions; developing projects that do not reflect optimal asset lifecycle plans developed at a network level; waste of staff time through inefficient business processes or duplication of effort; and omission of critical assets from one or more analyses (e.g., for lack of data or a dedicated management system). Guidance is needed to assist agencies in making better use of existing systems to integrate network and project-level analysis, as well as to define a framework for future asset management tools that will enable integrated network and project-level analyses across multiple asset classes, potentially using multi-objective approaches.
The goal of this research is two-fold: to provide guidance on how transportation agencies can best use existing management systems and tools to integrate network and project-level analysis and provide a framework for an improve asset modeling approach that better integrates the project and network levels incorporating multiple asset types and consideration of multiple objectives. The research is intended to be of immediate value in helping transportation agencies better comply with Federal requirements to set performance targets and develop asset management plans. Also, it will help agencies to extend asset management approaches to additional systems and assets, besides the NHS pavement and bridge assets addressed through the Federal regulations. In addition, the research will help define improved approaches for asset management models for public agencies, researchers and system developers to use in developing the next generation of asset management systems.
Research is needed addressing risk analysis/vulnerability quantification and application to multiple transportation modes for purposes of scenario planning at MPO and DOT levels. There is significant variability across agencies with regards to how the agencies analyze risk and their practices for assessing vulnerability. Even basic elements such as methods that agencies use to collect data are not consistent across agencies, further complicating any potential analysis.
This research should:
• Identify pertinent data sources, data types, as well as relevant collection and analysis methods employed by transit agencies.
• Provide a synthesis of examples or State of the Practice applications for MPOs/DOTs.
• Outline communication strategies to the relevant decision-makers.
There are standard practices used internationally for incorporating asset valuation into an organization’s financial statements that have not been adopted in the US. These are important to asset management to support long-term financial planning, leading to improved financial sustainability. Improved practices in asset valuation will allow agencies to use financial valuation and acknowledge that sustainability is not only about maintaining financial capacity (cash) and infrastructure capital (condition).
The objectives of this research are to examine methods for evaluation of system assets. Thorough research should:
• Identify international practices and determine how they can be applied in the US
• Better marry engineering and accounting in financial planning
• Demonstrate benefits through a case study (may be fictional)
Enterprise-wide asset management is a multi-disciplinary, cross-functional, inter-departmental and partner-dependent undertaking that forms the basis of how an organization does business. How does an asset owner ensure that all of those involved in successful asset management are aligned, taking responsibility, and contributing to the effort?
The focus of this research is to support a scan tour or peer exchange addressing organizational alignment for TAM. This falls into three distinct but equally necessary categories: a review of previous knowledge, a inter-agency gathering to assess differing organizational models and policies to TAM, and finally a report or summary of the findings.
State departments of transportation (DOTs) and other transportation agencies are challenged to deliver greater transportation asset management (TAM) performance – even as available resources are increasingly constrained. Agencies recognize that established business processes, organizational structures, technical methodologies, tools, and systems must adapt to meet these challenges. Agencies must increasingly pursue tailored solutions that consider a variety of perspectives and factors – and work in a more collaborative fashion. At the same time, decision processes are more open and desired outcomes are more likely to be measured and reported. Taken together, these dynamics elevate the challenge of effectively implementing TAM for DOTs and other government transportation agencies. As a result, the state of the practice is uneven: TAM is adopted in some organizations but not others, and in some organizations to a greater degree than others.
Research is needed addressing the question: “What are the organizational/cultural factors that were in place before and/or during implementation that created a successful TAM program?” Develop a guidebook to convey lessons learned. Key point: must use an organizational development or similar consulting firm. Not the usual suspects!
The relationships between TAM and economic development, safety, mobility, etc. need to be better understood. This will help activities such and the connectivity between long range plans, transportation improvement programs, and transportation asset management plans. Research and evaluation of agency practice and results is required to consider how these agency activities and expenditures relate back to an agency’s goals and objectives. For example, how do system-wide goals for level of service and condition translate into individual project selection and asset management application? This research will focus on understanding the TAM relationships to broader transportation goals and how best to make the connections stronger from planning, programming, project delivery, to maintenance/operations.
This research will focus on understanding TAM’s relationship to other transportation goals such as economic development, safety, environmental sustainability, mobility, and livability. Two products are sought through this research: 1) Framework for understanding the relationships between TAM and broad transportation goals. 2) Guidance on how to ensure TAM connectivity to broad transportation goals throughout the transportation decision-making cycle.
As TAM tools and techniques advance, organizational capabilities in transportation agencies have to advance also to realize the benefits of asset management. Many organizational models and role types exist for TAM programs. People are an integral ingredient for realizing the positive outcomes that are possible with asset management. Transportation agencies today could use assistance in improving organizational capacity to adopt asset management benefits.
This research will focus on understanding successful organizational models for TAM program so that guidance can be provided on how to improve organizational capacities. Two products are sought through this research: 1) Understanding of current organizational models for TAM programs 2) Catalog of possible organizational models for TAM programs that transportation agencies could consider for improving TAM capabilities.
With the current financial state and shrinkage of resources, there is an urgent need to know what is the value and future cost of maintaining assets. Maintaining assets have an obvious value, but there is a cost associated with both choosing to maintain assets, as well as a cost associated with choosing not to do so. Attempting to determine the expected long-term costs of maintaining an asset, as well as the predicted value of having a well-maintained asset, is a considerable challenge for a transportation agency.
The objective for this research is to examine the costs and value associated with maintaining assets, and then to develop a usable model for forecasting the cost and value. Such a model must include, but not be limited to:
• A framework for quantitatively assessing the value of an asset that has been properly maintained.
• A tool for calculating the long-term costs of maintaining an asset, in line with industry standards for safety and reliability.
In addition to developing the model, the research should also establish guidance targeted at helping practitioners conduct forecasting analyses and communicate the results.
Well set up asset inventory is essential to reduce long-term costs in any agency. By tracking assets, lifecycle costs should be able to be reduced. An accurate asset inventory is a key element in meeting MAP-21 requirements. With the emergence of asset tagging and tracking technologies it is imperative to have a common standard in how these technologies should be developed and applied to support asset lifecycle management. Which of these technologies is the most efficient at reducing costs is still an open question.
The proposed research will:
• Evaluate various technologies for tagging and tracking assets and capturing asset history. Each proposed tracking technology should be evaluated for various factors, such as cost, ease of use, efficacy, and time required to implement.
• Create a standard for transportation asset tagging and tracking that can be used intermodally and across agencies.
• Develop a business case to demonstrate the lifecycle savings that can be achieved by transportation entities. This case study may be fictional if a suitable real-world example cannot be identified due to the new nature of the technologies.
Due to legislative mandates and advances in organizational practices, transportation planning agencies have engaged in intensive data collection activities. The resulting data has been used, to some extent, by these agencies to guide their resource allocation decisions for their infrastructure assets. However, there still remains vast amounts of underutilized data that, if leveraged appropriately, could be used by planning agencies to improve the cost-effectiveness of their infrastructure maintenance and preservation activities. As a result, it is important that planning agencies gain better insights regarding the types of data frequently available within infrastructure management systems that can be used to reduce the life-cycle costs of an agency’s assets.
The proposed research will:
Treatment selection is related to treatment timing. An asset that is identified to have a particular treatment but the treatment, but the treatment is delayed can be improperly treated if the treatment is not reevaluated. If a more dynamic method for selection could be applied at the right time, the end results could be greatly improved, but a concrete methodology to accomplish this is lacking.
The proposed research will first develop a methodology that will allow dynamic changes to treatment plans. Then, the research must test the methodology, as well as identify and quantify cost savings benefits of using the methodology or tool.
Existing standards have been developed by ISO and are being used by various groups. Now there is federal legislature with requirements for asset management plans. The goal of this research is to establish relationships between these existing standards and the legislature requirements.
Identify linkage between ISO standards and MAP-21 TAMP requirements. Identify gaps or inconsistencies and propose solutions. The proposed solutions may include guidelines for agencies, research needs, modification to the standards, or agency specific standards that address agency specific needs.
Agencies have a need to tell a better story. The utility of a well-thought out story, called a marketing plan, is to convert the non-believing decision makers and public. A well-conceived plan must translate the technical issues to something that resonates with public. For example, Ohio has marketing toolbox for continuous improvement with tools designed specifically for internal and external users. Although Asset Management is the right thing to do, the public still does not rally behind the cause. A possible solution is heavy branding and thorough communications plans.
The focus of this research can be divided into three main categories. Firstly, prior information must be collected and organized. This is accomplished through:
• Case studies and examples of best practice
• Creating a synthesis of state’s best practices
The next step is to build tools that allow for better asset management marketing, such as:
• Communication, sales, and/or a media science application to help craft a way to tell the story
• Creating a marketing plan that can be used to educate and train
• Training to Speak a language that all can understand
• Communicating the secondary benefits of TAM
Finally, follow-ups of the methods must be conducted to measure efficacy. This could include examining:
• How effective are the marketing and communication? Is the message being received?
• How has public perception changed?
Autonomous vehicles, colloquially referred to as self-driving cars, have a large potential to impact transportation networks in the near future. Semi-autonomous vehicles with various degrees of autonomy are already a reality. The industry is still a relatively nascent one, and therefore several large questions still exist. The expected capabilities and limitations of these vehicles are not yet established, nor is a timeline for implementation. The capacities and speed of implementation of autonomous vehicles are also greatly affected by the infrastructure on which they operate.
The objectives of this research are to quantify the expected abilities of autonomous vehicles, to establish an expected timeline of integration within the greater transportation networks, and to examine what infrastructure changes are most beneficial for autonomous vehicles.
The capacities of autonomous vehicles are not yet quantified. The research should:
• Determine what types of roads are suitable for such vehicles.
• Examine safety for both drivers/passengers, and other users of the roadways, such as pedestrians and cyclists.
• Explore limitations, such as fog or extreme conditions.
• Establish a timeline for adoption. Since the technology is expected to change rapidly, current capabilities will change.
The infrastructure requirements for autonomous vehicles are greatly dependent on the capabilities of the vehicles. Nevertheless, certain changes can be expected to improve the safety and usefulness of the vehicles, such as:
• Repainting roadways to help the vehicles operate.
• Installing RFID that could communicate with the vehicles directly.
• Determining what challenges would face a mixed-stream road of autonomous vehicles and vehicles under driver operation.
Transportation Asset Management (TAM) brings with it new fields and emerging technologies. These innovations require employees to have a different skill set then what was previously necessary. Co-ordination cross departments and silos is mandatory. Effective data management and effective use of systems and analytics is essential. With all of these new employee skills being critical to effective operations, transit agencies face the difficulty of recruiting, training, and maintaining a TAM staff.
The primary focus of this research is, at a most basic level, to help agencies strengthen their work force. This should be accomplished by researching areas where:
• Agencies lack a comprehensive list of necessary skills for a given position
• Agencies lack a comprehensive list of which positions are most critical to keep fully staffed. In an era of shrinking budgets, effectively prioritizing hiring decisions is crucial.
• There is a gap in knowledge regarding existing certifications.
Data-driven analytics are increasing critical to the success of any transportation agency. The recent NHS expansion impact on data collection, collaboration, and by extension, the entire decision making process. This leaves a fundamental question: How do we help agencies comply with FHWA requirements to manage across jurisdictions.
The research should focus of two primary areas of focus. The researchers must develop a guidebook for data integration across jurisdictional lines, as well as review the existing standards for civil data. This could include projects such as Civil Integrated Management (CIM) and the researchers must document the positive and negative ramifications of the various standards.
Emerging technologies hold the promise of transforming asset data collection for transportation asset management such as the use of drones for inspections, LiDAR field data collection, continuous monitoring of real-time sensor data, and more. While the technology has been transforming, MAP-21 and the Fast Act jump started at many agencies in attaining an inventory of infrastructure assets and transportation data. At the same time, accessibility and affordability to collect high volumes of asset inventory data, such as LiDAR point cloud data, present the problem of how agencies can visualize and manage such large amounts of data and integrate the many layers for each transportation asset management plan. Now that the need for such data is federally recognized, further research is needed to understand what the latest technologies for asset analysis can offer an agency as well as how frequently that information needs generated.
Synthesis 508 - Data Governance
Research is needed in the following areas:
● Address the adoption and practical application of these technologies and the rapid pace of technological advancement.
● What level of extraction detail and frequency interval is needed to support TAM at both the state and local levels and how can the condition assessment be applied to the performance measures of both pavement and non-pavement assets?
● Further investigate what tools are capable of visualizing asset extraction layers, as well as presenting such data to all stakeholders in powerful GIS formats with standardized TAM graphics for universal interpretation.
AI is coming – are we ready? With the MAP-21/FAST Act legislation, and the renewed emphasis on Transportation Asset Management Plans (TAMPs), projections made by management systems will come under increasing scrutiny as agency executive leadership is asked to make large scale funding decisions based on these projections. This scrutiny as well as the inherent complications in predictive modeling of asset deterioration, presents an opportunity for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in this type of analysis.
AI is becoming ubiquitous in the realm of automation and pattern recognition and shows promise in improving predictive modeling for infrastructure managed by highway agencies. Because data collected over time is especially valuable for deterioration modeling, it is very important for agencies to start collecting the right data, and putting in place the right quality control, as early as possible so that this data is ready for immediate use as more research into AI techniques for predictive modeling is conducted.
This research project would aim to develop a Primer or Guidance document to help agencies tasked with managing infrastructure (including pavement and bridges) to assess their current data, data collection processes, and data needs to best position them to be able to take advantage of burgeoning artificial intelligence techniques to develop increasingly accurate predictive models regarding their infrastructure.
The Real Option method allows infrastructure owners to evaluate the advantage of options that an infrastructure manager has over time. As time passes, a manager will have the ability to intervene as as an object may deteriorate at a faster rate than expected. Likewise, a manager may postpone a planned intervention if the condition is better than expected. In addition to the option to defer, a manager may have the option to expand or contract the infrastructure or the infrastructure network, as well as to shut it down temporarily, abandon it, grow it or switch it (de Neufville and Scholtes, 2011).
The options provide an owner with the flexibility adapting the infrastructure to uncertain future needs. Owners, thus, neither under-, nor overinvest and consequently minimize the risks of their decisions. The external factors affecting risk include weather events, condition development, system demands, funding and other critical variables. The methodology proposes a way to systematically analyse and define these uncertainties and make predictions taking the defined uncertainty fully into consideration.
Real option valuation is known using binomial lattices (a form of decision trees) and/or Brownian motion random walk algorithms. Infrastructure life-time net benefits can also be calculated by simulating the uncertainty using continuous Monte Carlo simulations. Using different stakeholders’ costs of different design alternatives and management strategies, the costs can be calculated over a large sample of potential futures. The methodology is able to address multiple levels of risk and weight them as necessary and thus make multi-objective, cross-asset investment decisions under uncertainty to best support the national goals identified in 23 USC 150(b).
The ultimate objective is to provide the decision-maker with tools that add value to the decision-making process and improve the robustness of the infrastructure network as a whole. In that sense, novel approaches for the evaluation of risk will be sought to capture the stochastic nature of interdependent infrastructure. A graph theory approach to evaluate criticality of network node failure as shown by Buldyrev and colleagues (2010) may prove interesting for the evaluation of consequences, and thus the real option value for the infrastructure, simulated by network programming methods.
The application and evaluation of a large sample of data and data simulations is computationally challenging. Furthermore, decision-making tools are urged to be simple and understandable. As big data may improve predictability and performance of models, strong emphasis must be laid on the usability of such models. In this project, it is suggested that particular focus will be on addressing these challenges with the outlook of combining big data and the model’s user interface design.
References:
Buldyrev, S. V., R. Parshani, G. Paul, H. E. Stanley and S. Havlin (2010) Catastrophic cascade of failures in interdependent networks, Nature, 464, 1025-1028.
de Neufville, R. and S. Scholtes (2011) Flexibility in Engineering Design, Engineering Systems, MIT Press, ISBN 978-0262297332.
Savage, S. (2012) The Flaw of Averages: Why we underestimate Risk in the face of Uncertainty, Wiley, ISBN 978-1118073759.
Prof. Dr. Rade Hajdin, July 2019
The ultimate objective is to provide the decision-maker with tools that add value to the decision-making process and improve the robustness of the infrastructure network as a whole. In that sense, novel approaches for the evaluation of risk will be sought to capture the stochastic nature of interdependent infrastructure. A graph theory approach to evaluate criticality of network node failure as shown by Buldyrev and colleagues (2010) may prove interesting for the evaluation of consequences, and thus the real option value for the infrastructure, simulated by network programming methods.
Continue to deliver TAM peer exchanges at the regional and national levels.
Synthesize best practices for workforce development and training in order to enhance the capabilities of a TAM team/staff or attract internal staff to become involved in TAM program/implementation.
Document and provide examples of condition assessments for all types of assets.
Document and provide examples of condition assessments for all types of assets.
Create case studies addressing noteworthy applications of big data analytics to TAM.
This is a note test.
Research effective corridor planning strategies that promote sustainable capital asset improvements that impact asset class performance and other performance areas.
Develop a framework, recommended actions, and synthesis of noteworthy practices for agencies to use in incorporating change management strategies in TAM practice.
• Asset conditions are typically determined currently in separate silos - leading to asset treatments that are applied on varied schedules by asset (pavement, bridges, culverts) even over the same corridor.
• Significant resources may be misallocated on treatments applied at the wrong time due to lack of coordinated corridor planning.
• Corridor planning can organize the asset treatments — while also looking at environmental issues, congestion, and safety
• There may be other issues such as operation needs in a corridor as well.
o “Project delivery” can be achieved more efficiently because projects are organized into a corridor delivery strategy. Projects can be peeled off as funding is available
o Public can be engaged all at once instead of multiple times for multiple projects.
o Minimize contractor costs
• Boadi, Richard S; Amekudzi, Adjo A. Risk-Based Corridor Asset Management: Applying Multiattribute Utility Theory to Manage Multiple Assets. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Issue 2354, 2013, pp 99–106 https://trid.trb.org/view/1241970
• Anderson, Scott A; Rivers, Benjamin S. Corridor Management: A Means to Elevate Understanding of Geotechnical Impacts on System Performance. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Issue 2349, 2013, pp 9-15 https://trid.trb.org/view/1241789
Develop guidance on an asset management corridor planning process to prioritize and schedule project delivery for cost effectiveness while also considering mobility/accessibility issues, drainage, and more.
Agencies have made progress in implementing TAM within their agencies. The impact of TAM will be much greater if stakeholders are engaged as a part of the decision-making and TAM approaches were collaborative for given geographic areas.
Develop communication tools and methodologies for engaging stakeholders in TAM program activities such as strategies development, performance management implementation, and budget development.
• Recent NCHRP research products have documented data governance techniques and provided tools for agencies to assess their current data governance practices and identify strategies for improvement.
• NCHRP 08-115 (publication pending) included data governance as one of several foundational activities for improving use of data and information for transportation asset management. An NCHRP 20-44 proposal is in process to conduct pilot implementations of the guidance and assessment tool developed through that project, and produce supplemental guidance materials based on the pilots.
• Many DOTs are implementing data governance – through establishing governance bodies, defining data stewardship roles and putting standard processes in place. The AASHTO Data Management and Analytics Committee has established a Chief Data Officer (CDO) peer group to enable ongoing sharing of data governance practices.
• This project would build on the established base of prior and ongoing work on data governance. It would focus specifically on providing specific examples or models that can be applied to help advance asset management practice through data governance.
• Synthesis 508 Data Management and Governance Practices
• NCHRP Report 920 Management and Use of Data for Transportation Performance Management: Guide for Practitioners
• NCHRP Report 814 Data to Support Transportation Agency Business Needs
• NCHRP 20-44 (12) Building Capacity for Self-Assessment of Data Effectiveness for Agency Business Needs (new project)
• NCHRP 08-115 Guidebook for Data and Information Systems for Transportation Asset Management
Provide support to implement the data governance practices and processes recommended through NCHRP 08-115, Guidebook for Data and Information Systems for Transportation Asset Management.
• It’s difficult to communicate the value of an asset management approach to the public.
• In many cases agency leaders and stakeholders, including the public, may not see discernable benefits from TAM, reducing support for a preservation-focused investment strategy and/or improved systems and data required to support a TAM approach.
• Research has been performed in the past regarding how to calculate the return on investment (ROI) of TAM systems and how to communicate the value of preservation. Also, private sector entities use a separate set of approaches for evaluating the benefits of providing transportation as a concession.
• Additional research is needed to quantify the benefits of TAM generally, and incorporate consideration of other factors such as sustainability, equity, resilience, etc.
• NCHRP Synthesis 330, Public Benefits of Highway System Preservation and Maintenance
• NCHRP Report 742, Communicating the Value of Preservation: A Playbook
• NCHRP Report 866, Return on Investment in Transportation Asset Management Systems and Practices
• TCRP Report 206, Guidance for Calculating the Return on Investment in Transit State of Good Repair
Develop a framework and guidance for calculating and communicating the overall benefit of improved asset management approaches to transportation agencies, transportation system users, and society of improved asset management approaches. The framework should address monetized benefits, as well as issues such as equity, sustainability, and resilience. Illustrate use of the framework and examples through a set of pilot studies of U.S. agencies.
Managing risk is a critical component of asset management. On a day-to-day basis transportation asset managers spend much of their time responding to or mitigating a large number of risks, which may range from external events that damage transportation infrastructure to unplanned changes to budget or workloads resulting from unexpected events. Various recent and on-going research efforts aim to improve approaches for risk management for transportation agencies. However, most of these efforts treat risk management as a high-level activity. Further research is needed to develop quantitative, repeatable approaches at the appropriate staff level, to assessing and identifying the highest priority risks transportation agencies face in managing physical assets. This project aims to develop such approaches to assess risks (e.g., financial, strategic, operational, political, environmental, technological, social justice risks) and incorporate them into life cycle analysis and planning efforts.
Risk management has been studied quite extensively in the transportation sector. Risk management encompasses four major steps: Risk identification, risk assessment, risk mitigation, and continuous updating of results. Risk assessment focuses on determining the magnitude of risk, which is directly proportional to the likelihood and consequences of an event to occur. Risk assessment has been a major area of study in pavement and bridge management efforts. In recent decades, the focus has shifted from assessing risk in single networks towards more holistic risk assessment approaches.
Between 2012 and 2013, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published a five-part report series on Risk Based Asset Management. These reports focus on: (1) Overview of risk management, (2) Managing risk at different levels, (3) Strategic risk management (risks to agency objectives), (4) Managing risk to critical assets, and (5) Managing external threats such as climate change and extreme weather risks. These reports played an important role in introducing risk management concepts into asset management efforts. In 2016, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) published the Guide for Enterprise Risk Management. In this Guide, risk management is defined as “the systematic application of policies, procedures, and practices to the identification and management of uncertainty or variability on achievement of agency objectives.” In addition, the Guide introduces four levels at which risks need to be managed: Strategic, Program, Project, and Activity levels. Enterprise Risk Management is defined as management of risks at all levels. Other research projects (recently completed, active, or pending) in this area include:
• NCHRP 08-113: Integrating Effective Transportation Performance, Risk, and Asset Management Practices
• NCHRP 08-118: Risk Assessment Techniques for Transportation Asset Management
• NCHRP 20-44(02): Implementation of the AASHTO Guide for Enterprise Risk Management
• NCHRP 20-123(04): Development of a Risk Management Strategic Plan and a Research Roadmap
• NCHRP 08-129: Incorporating Resilience Concepts and Strategies in Transportation Planning
• NCHRP 23-09: Scoping Study to Develop the Basis for a Highway Standard to Conduct an All-Hazards Risk and Resilience Analysis.
Managing risk at program (or network) and project levels is particularly important to achieve desired performance levels and to improve resilience of a transportation system. While existing research efforts in this area are highly significant, there is a need for developing more practical and repeatable risk assessment calculation methods for project and network level risks. This proposed study will build on these recent efforts, particularly NCHRP 23-09, and serve as the next phase in risk assessment and management.
The objectives of this research are to:
• Generate risk identification techniques to determine high risk threats at project and network levels,
• Develop quantitative, repeatable approaches for assessing likelihood and consequences for these threats,
• Develop visual, interactive characterization methods (e.g., dashboards) to reflect an agency’s level of risk and the effectiveness of proposed mitigation actions,
• Allow risk and resilience to be on par with traditional performance measures.
High risk threats to be studied include, but are not limited to, extreme events (e.g., earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, avalanches, tornadoes), asset failure (structural and operational), financial, strategic, political, environmental (e.g., sea level rise, flooding), technological, and social justice risks.
The final deliverables could include guidebook with a spreadsheet or a framework for assessing high risk threats and incorporating the results into TAM efforts. The guidebook should feature a comprehensive review of existing literature and current practice. It should present a standard definition of resilience as well as step-by-step instructions to develop models, methods, and metrics for estimating resilience of highway systems to high risk threats. Pilot studies should be conducted with select agencies to test the guidance and calculation procedures.
While existing reporting mechanisms allow agencies to see the parts of their network that are in good and poor condition, risks associated with different threats and the impact of failure are not reported as an explicit performance measure. Competing design documents, financial implications, legal concerns, maintenance practices, focus on building new capacity rather than managing existing infrastructure, and other factors that affect decision making procedures may counter-act risk-based TAM practices. Issues related to social justice and equity, and consequences of failures make risk-based TAM even more important. Creating harmony in the TAM decision making space in consideration of risk and resilience represents an urgent need. A practical, quantitative, and repeatable risk assessment process could play a major role in addressing this need.
The target audience for the research results is asset management and risk-management champions at state and local government transportation agencies. The results of this project will potentially empower these individuals in convincing other decision makers in these agencies to take actions that not only align with traditional performance management objectives but also that result in lower risk and higher resilience for the whole transportation system. The results of this project can also be effective in communicating the rationale behind risk-based decisions to the general public. Due to legal implications of identifying and documenting risks, the research and final product should include advice on how to protect the agency from litigation if they cannot implement a recommended action.
Risk assessment is at the core of implementing a risk-based asset management approach. Therefore, FHWA and AASHTO view this as a subject of great importance. In addition, risk management cuts across all areas of a state DOT’s business and just about any AASHTO Committee and any state DOT and local agency could realize benefits from these research results.
The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) transportation bill established federal regulations that require each State Department of Transportation (DOT) to develop a Transportation Asset Management Plan (TAMP), and implement Performance Management. These regulations require all DOTs to utilize nationally defined performance measures for pavements on the National Highway System (NHS). These nationally defined performance measures (referred as PM2 hereafter) are aimed at providing nationally consistent metrics for DOTs to measure condition, establish targets, assess progress toward targets, and report on condition and performance. Furthermore, Federal measures provide the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) the ability to better communicate a national performance story and to more reliably assess the impacts of Federal funding investments.
State DOTs are expected to use the information and data generated from these Federal measures to inform their transportation planning and programming decisions. However, State DOTs are finding discrepancies between pavement conditions from PM2 measures as compared to their internal, state-developed measures. This discrepancy hampers the adoption of the PM2 pavement measures as the primary input into condition summary reporting and pavement investment prioritization and decision-making. In other words, State DOTs do not have confidence in the Federal measures, primarily because these measures cannot be used to inform decision-making processes such as investment decisions. Furthermore, the resulting differences between state metric-determined and federal metric-determined network conditions creates confusion among the public, senior executive staff, and legislative bodies, along with non-DOT owners of NHS assets.
As mentioned before, FHWA needs to collect consistent Federal measures across all State DOTs to assess the impact of Federal funding investment at the national level. However, State DOTs have been collecting pavement performance data for decades and used this data to inform their pavement management systems and processes to address specific needs. Typically, the data collection processes cover state-owned pavements and not only NHS pavements, which brings another layer of inconsistency. For this reason, there is a need for more flexible metrics that can be aligned to performance measures currently used by State DOTs and support decision-making processes such as investment decisions.
The objective of this research is to:
1. Evaluate current federal pavement condition measures (Ride Quality, Rutting, Faulting, and Cracking), performance thresholds, and overall performance measure with respect to:
a. Consistency – across various pavement types, network designations, and lane configurations
b. Usefulness – in network-level pavement condition summary and asset management decision-making, prioritization, and forecasts; and
c. Alignment – with state established pavement condition metrics
2. Provide recommendations to improve existing measures and/or identify metrics that better reflect pavement failure mechanisms and enhance decision-making taking into account not
only the assessment of current and future condition but also their implications in economic analyses of long-term maintenance and rehabilitation. Evaluate pavement leading indicators as an alternative to the current version of the PM2.
3. Identify and address in detail specific challenges for each condition measure (Ride Quality, Rutting, Faulting, and Cracking) for consistency, including thresholds. For example, determine if wheel path cracking considerations could be revised to provide more consistent results across pavement types (e.g. composite, concrete) and pavement widths (e.g. <12 ft.) 4. Evaluate structural capacity indicators for potential consideration as a Federal measure.
Because DOTs are only two years into implementing the pavement performance measures and metrics, the urgency is great to make sure the measures in use are as meaningful, consistent and implementable as possible. Currently, the performance measures have not achieved widespread use as the primary performance criteria for decision-making, leading to two sets of metrics being used by many agencies. In addition, DOTs must make performance predictions and justifications based on the federal performance measures. Making any changes to the measures as soon as possible will allow DOTs to build up datasets on which to base predictions of future performance.
Potential benefits to improving the federal pavement performance measures and metrics include:
• Metrics that better define pavement failure mechanisms and therefore condition
• Metrics that result in more consistent results across pavement types and pavement widths
• Broader adoption of the measures by DOTs as part of decision-making criteria
• Less confusion among the public, senior executive staff, and legislative bodies, along with non-DOT owners of NHS assets by having one set of metrics instead of two (federal and state-specific)
This topic is of significant interest to AASHTO, TRB, and the DOTs, having ranked third amongst potential NCHRP topics in the recent TAM Research Prioritization conducted as part of the 2020 Mega Meeting of the AASHTO Subcommittee on Asset Management, in cooperation with the TRB Asset Management Committee (AJE30).
The following are organizations and contacts who may be interested in using the results of the research and supporting its dissemination:
• AASHTO Committee on Performance-based Management: Tim Henkel, Chair (Minnesota DOT, (651) 366-4829, [email protected]), Matt Hardy (AASHTO, (202) 624-3625, [email protected])
• AASHTO Subcommittee on Asset Management: Matt Haubrich, Chair (Iowa DOT, (515) 233-7902, [email protected])
• FHWA Office of Asset Management: Steve Gaj (FHWA, (202) 366-1336, [email protected]) Tim Henkel, TAM Expert Task Group Chair (see contact above)
• TRB Asset Management Committee (ABC40): Tim Henkel, Chair (see contact above)
• State departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) across the United States are required to establish performance targets as part of their asset management efforts. The target- setting requirements for transportation performance management (PM2) of pavement and bridge condition generally require agencies to consider three factors; the measured condition of the assets, expected deterioration over time and project level accomplishments. The measured condition of the asset is the ultimate measure of progress and an effective way for agencies to demonstrate that they are making progress as required by federal regulations.
• Research assessing the consistency of National Bridge Inventory (NBI) condition metrics has found variability between individual inspectors when inspecting “control bridges” for study. In other words, there is the potential for any given bridge inspector to assess the current condition of same bridge differently. This variability means that the conditions of bridge could improve in the absence of a project just by having a different inspector interpret the field condition differently. A similar potential exists for pavement condition assessments. This demonstrates the potential inconsistencies due to human interaction, but the same could be true of technologies if applied or calibrated differently across agencies.
• Pavement and bridge conditions rely on assessment methods that are subject to variability from one assessment to the next and from one assessor or one technology utilization to the next. This variability may occur in the absence of projects or significant field deterioration. This research project would attempt to evaluate the impact of condition assessment variability on agency wide target setting required for asset management.
The outcome from this effort will benefit quality assurance (QA) methods for data collection and inspection efforts, quantify the variability and sensitivity in target setting for DOTs, and help budget planning for asset inconsistencies.
• To be completed at 9/9 research workshop
• Since the performance measures are consistently tied to specific data inputs, each state could use this research to understand the potential volatility in target setting and performance measures. The summary of best practices and pitfalls will also allow transportation agencies and vendors to improve inspection protocol. Testing of the data should be a part of the research, with a few select agencies comparing potentially the same data in a single year across multiple sources or reviewing the historic trends of individual data pints to highlight inconsistencies and the impact of those inconsistencies to overall measures and targets.
• This research would best be shared in an open forum or webinar so all agencies and consultants tasked with data management can obtain the information. The AASHTO Performance Management Committee should be interested in supporting this research to ensure that the performance measures produced by transportation agencies are of the highest quality.