The measurement of organizational efficiency at State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) is a growing area of interest. There has not been significant research in transportation agency organizational efficiency. The following presents resources that are broadly applicable to any organization and resources that are related to transportation.
Guidance and Resources – Not Specific to Transportation
Guidance and Resources – Transportation-Related
The objective of this research is to develop a comprehensive framework for measuring organizational efficiency at State Departments of Transportation (DOTs). This framework will provide standardized metrics and methodologies to assess and improve the internal processes, resource allocation, and overall performance of state DOTs. By identifying key areas for efficiency improvements and incorporating best practices from both public and private sectors, the research aims to empower transportation agencies to optimize operations, reduce waste, and enhance accountability. Additionally, the framework will address emerging considerations such as technology integration, sustainability, and equity, ensuring that DOTs are better equipped to meet the evolving demands of modern transportation systems while maximizing public value. In addition to the framework the research should produce tools to help state DOTs measure organizational efficiency.
Urgency:
State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are facing unprecedented challenges, including aging infrastructure, budget constraints, increasing public demand for accountability, and the growing need to incorporate sustainability and equity into their operations. With limited resources, it is essential that state DOTs operate with maximum efficiency to ensure public funds are used effectively and that transportation projects are completed on time and within budget. Despite the importance of organizational efficiency, many state DOTs lack a standardized framework for measuring internal performance, leading to inconsistent practices and missed opportunities for improvement. As the complexity of transportation networks increases, compounded by the demands of advanced technology, climate adaptation, and equity, there is an urgent need for a robust and adaptable framework to guide DOTs in optimizing their operations.
Potential Benefits:
The development of a comprehensive framework for measuring organizational efficiency at state DOTs will offer numerous benefits, including:
By addressing these urgent needs, this research will provide state DOTs with the tools to enhance operational efficiency, ensure effective use of public resources, and adapt to the evolving demands of transportation systems in the 21st century.
The objective of this research is to develop performance and risk-based approaches to curb management. The research will provide guidance and good practices to better enable DOTs in managing performance and threats added with transportation features like electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, Mobility as a Service (MaaS), and Mobility on Demand (MOD) as they compete for the same curb space as more traditional physical transportation elements such as pedestrian and vehicle parking/loading usage. The research will include the identification of good practices, necessary data to support performance and risk-based decision making, and a framework for developing performance and risk-based approaches to managing shared curb space.
There are numerous ongoing funding opportunities that states are actively implementing that demonstrate that implementation is occurring faster than approaches to good management strategies, summarized below:
The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program allocated approximately $4.1 Billion in funding to states to strategically deploy EV charging stations and to establish an interconnected network to facilitate data collection, access, and reliability. Eligible NEVI funding include:
Although proper operation and maintenance was a funding eligible activity, there was no guidance provided on how to do it, or what levels of acceptable service are.
The Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program is allocating approximately $2.5 Billion in funding to deploy publicly accessible electric, hydrogen, propane, and natural gas fueling infrastructure along designated corridors, and within communities, that will be accessible to all drivers. Eligible activities within the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant include:
FHWA just released their National Deployment Plan for Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Technologies “Saving Lives with Connectivity: A Plan to Accelerate V2X Deployment” in it they discuss the current investments being made in connected infrastructure:
They also set the following goals:
The top metro areas will have the largest competition for curb space and connected infrastructure will be located in the curb. Also, Cyber Security is a highly discussed risk, and given the traditional adage that “physical access is total access” and every connected device is a potential physical access point the risks to DOT and city systems needs to be considered.
One of the two primary task for States, Local Governments, Tribes, and Public Agencies in the National Deployment Plan for Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Technologies is to Deploy and operate secure interoperable, cybersecure infrastructure-based V2X technologies and applications. Without understanding the risks we cannot provide for security.
In addition to NCHRP Project 23-09, other relevant research in this area includes:
This research will develop guidance and an enterprise risk model framework-driven process for transportation agency leadership to decide the best course of action in addressing short and long-term enterprise-level risks. This will lead to improvements in the practice of enterprise risk management through right-sizing investments in a wide array of risk mitigation strategies to avoid much higher costs tomorrow. Efforts include:
As transportation agencies face wildfires, flooding, and other forms of destruction to the transportation system with more regularity and intensity, there is an increased urgency for methodologies that support modeling future uncertainties and evaluating when risks reach the point that investments in mitigation strategies are warranted to offset the potential for huge economic and social impacts. The guidance developed through this research will lead to the ability for transportation agencies to better analyze potential risks, as actuaries do regularly to support the insurance industry. The results will lead to a more resilient transportation system with fewer disruptions.
Various publications analyze some aspects of non-auto demands, such as travel activity by children and youths, people with disabilities, low-income households, zero-car households, visitors, and people who want more physical activity and fitness. Other studies examine demands for specific modes such as walking, bicycling, bike- and car-sharing, and various types of public transit. Some studies examine latent demands for non-auto travel and the benefits of serving currently unmet demands. However, few studies consider overall non-auto travel demands by all groups, total latent demands, and total benefits of serving them, and few documents provide technical guidance for performing such analysis.
As previously described, current analyses often rely on incomplete data, such as commute mode share, which undercounts non-auto trips, and often overlooks or underestimates latent demands for non-auto travel.
Below are some examples of current literature:
Develop guidance for more comprehensive analysis of non-auto travel demands, including latent demands.
There is an urgent need to better understand non-auto travel demands, including the ability to forecast future demands and the impacts of serving those demands. This study can provide large benefits by better aligning the planning and investment decisions of state DOTs and other transportation agencies with the needs and preferences of transportation system users. Many policy makers and planning practitioners recognize that a significant portion of travelers cannot, should not, or prefer not to drive and will use non-auto modes if they are convenient, comfortable and affordable, and many jurisdictions have mode shift targets, but practitioners lack the data needed to achieve these goals. Current planning practices tend to overlook and undervalue non-auto travel demands, particularly latent demands, resulting in underinvestment. Improving our understanding of non-auto travel demands can make planning and investment decisions more responsive to user and community needs.
The research would be beneficial to state DOT professionals at any level as well as transportation organization partners and stakeholders who all have a vested interest in better understanding the demand for different modes of transportation. Implementation elements include a communications plan to ensure awareness of the research and TRB, FHWA and AASHTO presentations to share the findings. Venues include workshops, peer exchanges, and committee meetings.
There are several other AASHTO and TRB committees interested in transportation’s contribution toward equity that would likely support this project, including:
AASHTO requirement for interim deliverable review:
The current draft of the problem statement is available as a word document here: https://www.tam-portal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2024/08/Non-Auto-Travel-Demands-Research-Needs-Statement-08222024.docx
• Not just the pieces, but the overall functions
• Learn from things like Baldridge, other management systems
Empathy, culture
Facilitating change management, team functions
Keeping workforce, mitigating staff turnover
Beyond organizational structure
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.
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 more evidence and examples, including efforts to integrate transportation resilience with broader initiatives like communication and energy infrastructure.
This research seeks to clarify and refine what it means to have an effective, outcome-based, high-level performance management approach to resilience. Toward this end there are three essential parts:
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.
Transportation resilience continues to grow in importance and this gap in practice needs to be addressed. Beyond natural hazards, this work should address increasing system demand (e.g., growing or shifting populations), technology and mobility advancement risks (e.g., new or changing modes), and institutional issues such as risk appetites and scarce resources.
This is proposed as an implementation project for NCHRPs 23-26 Measuring Impacts and Performance of State DOT Resilience Efforts, planned to be completed by the end of 2024. It may also be done in parallel with the new 23-35 Developing New Performance Metrics for Risk Management.
This research would primarily be used by transportation agencies and others responsible for implementing resilience performance measures and management systems and build on some of the research conducted on other projects. 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. As this work emphasizes resilience measures that are outcome-based and trackable over time, implementing organizations that are expected to monitor performance over time may benefit from collaboration.
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:
The current draft of the problem statement is available as a word document here: https://www.tam-portal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2024/08/Research-Needs-Statement-for-Implementing-Effective-Resilience-Performance-August-2024.docx
i. What portion of travelers cannot, should not, or prefer not to drive and would use non-auto modes if they are convenient, comfortable and affordable.
(combined with elements of the omissions and biases in the planning process idea as appropriate. from symposium 1:
Research that combines the following two ideas:
Better understanding of non-auto travel demands. What portion of travelers cannot, should not, or prefer not to drive and would use non-auto modes if they are convenient, comfortable and affordable. This will require more detailed and targeted travel surveys, and case studies which measure the travel changes that result from non-auto improvements and incentives.
Omissions and biases in the planning process. A number of studies indicate that current planning tends to overinvest in automobile facilities and underinvest in non-auto improvements, TDM programs and Smart Growth development policies compared with what is fair and efficient. Some of these reflect the previous-describe omissions and others result from funding biases that make it much easier for public agencies to invest in highways and mandate off-street parking than to improve other modes. We need research that identifies these biases and provides a roadmap for more efficient and equitable transportation planning.)
Literature exists on equity in transportation focused on policy and project decisions, or specifically federal grant programs. Research is needed that focuses on incorporating equity into broader programming decisions at state DOTs. (Note: we can add short summaries about these in further revisions to this RNS).
Existing literature about transportation equity includes:
The objective of this research is to understand how programs of projects contribute to achieving transportation equity and determine how to adjust current programming processes to achieve more equitable outcomes.
The following research tasks will support the main objective:
Equity is increasingly a key goal for state DOTs and the federal government. In addition to the federal commitment to Justice 40, many state DOTs are coming to terms with their past actions that have caused harms in disadvantaged communities throughout the country and are seeking remedies. States and local communities have adopted commitments to transportation equity to address on-going inequities in transportation. The social unrest in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd showed the impact that entrenched inequities can have on the population. The resulting outrage fueled the desire for a greater focus on equity across the country.
State DOTs spend billions of dollars every year on transportation projects across the country. This investment has the ability to greatly benefit disadvantaged communities and reduce existing inequitable outcomes if DOTs and other transportation providers are able to evaluate and measure their program in regards to equity. Transportation access is necessary for employment and improved transportation access greatly improves job opportunities and access to other important destinations.
The research would be beneficial to state DOT professionals at any level as well as transportation organization partners and stakeholders who all have a vested interest in improving equity in transportation and overall. Implementation elements include a communications plan to ensure awareness of the research and TRB, FHWA and AASHTO presentations to share the findings. Venues include workshops, peer exchanges, and committee meetings.
There are several other AASHTO and TRB committees interested in transportation’s contribution toward equity that would likely support this project, including:
The current draft of the problem statement is available as a word document here: https://www.tam-portal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2024/08/Equity-in-Programming-NCHRPProblemStatement-FY26-8222024.docx
i. Research objective is to understand how owners and travelers can use AI and massive data sets during events and understand the appropriate use of the datasets (reliability, risks) *TO REFINE
Predictive maintenance
Possible synthesis?
i. The research objective is to develop a guide to identifying and managing EV, CAV risks to roadway safety infrastructure.
Changes in freight
How infrastructure moves with advancements in technology.
Implications on infrastructure
• When to determine if it is maintenance or engineering activity
• Lifecycle considerations
• BC/ROI considerations for maintenance vs engineering treatments
• Possible synthesis?
Transportation Performance Management (TPM) is a strategic approach that uses system performance data to guide decision-making and optimize the planning, operation, and maintenance of transportation networks. As states, regions, and local governments increasingly face challenges like budget constraints, aging infrastructure, population growth, and the need for sustainability, effective performance management becomes essential in ensuring that transportation investments deliver maximum value.
In the United States, federal legislation, such as the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) and the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, has established a national framework for performance-based transportation management. These mandates have encouraged state departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to adopt a performance-driven approach to managing transportation assets, reducing congestion, improving safety, and advancing environmental sustainability.
The Transportation Performance Management Blue Book is proposed as a comprehensive guide that will standardize and document best practices, metrics, methodologies, and case studies to help transportation agencies effectively implement TPM frameworks. This Blue Book will serve as a critical resource for state and local transportation agencies to benchmark their performance management efforts, identify gaps, and integrate performance management into long-term planning and investment strategies.
In addition to addressing current best practices, the Blue Book will explore emerging trends such as the integration of advanced data analytics, smart technologies, and real-time data collection systems that enhance TPM. It will also examine challenges faced by transportation agencies, such as data interoperability, funding limitations, and the need for cross-agency collaboration.
By creating this guide, the project aims to equip transportation agencies with a practical, user-friendly resource that will promote more consistent and effective transportation performance management nationwide. The Blue Book will ultimately support the development of more efficient, safe, and sustainable transportation systems.
By creating this guide, the project aims to equip transportation agencies with a practical, user-friendly resource that will promote more consistent and effective transportation performance management nationwide. The Blue Book will ultimately support the development of more efficient, safe, and sustainable transportation systems.
Guidance, Documents, Research, and Resources:
NCHRP Report 1035: Guide to Effective Methods for Setting Transportation Performance Targets
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) - Performance-Based Planning and Programming Guidebook (2013)
FHWA Transportation Performance Management (TPM) Toolbox
FHWA: Transportation System Performance Monitoring (2015)
AASHTO - Transportation Performance Management Portal
FHWA Performance Management Guidebook (2016)
Transportation Research Board (TRB) Special Report 329: Adapting Transportation to Climate Change (2019)
NCHRP Synthesis 532: Emerging Trends in Transportation Performance Management (2019)
National Academies Press: Improving Transportation Resilience through Performance Management (2020)
Urban Institute: Equity in Transportation Performance Management (2019)
World Resources Institute (WRI): Inclusive Transportation Planning and Performance Management (2020)
NCHRP 08-127 Emerging Issues: Impact of New Disruptive Technologies on the Performance of DOTs
NCHRP Report 991: Guidelines for the Development and Application of Crash Modification Factors (2022)
NCHRP Web-Only Document 335: A Guide to Computation and Use of System-Level Valuation of Transportation Assets (2021)
Case Studies and Best Practices:
Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Gray Notebook
Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Smart Scale Program
Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) - Performance Dashboard
The objective of this research is to develop a comprehensive Transportation Performance Management (TPM) Blue Book that standardizes best practices, performance metrics, and methodologies for transportation agencies across the United States. This guide will provide actionable insights to help agencies effectively implement TPM frameworks, improve decision-making, optimize resource allocation, and align with federal requirements. By addressing challenges such as data management, funding constraints, and equity considerations, the TPM Blue Book aims to support the development of more efficient, safe, and sustainable transportation systems.
Urgency:
The need for effective Transportation Performance Management (TPM) has never been more critical. With the increasing strain on transportation systems due to aging infrastructure, growing populations, and heightened demand for sustainable solutions, transportation agencies are under pressure to make more informed, data-driven decisions. Additionally, federal mandates such as MAP-21 and the FAST Act require transportation agencies to adopt performance-based management systems, adding urgency to the implementation of TPM frameworks. However, many agencies face challenges in developing standardized metrics, managing vast datasets, and aligning performance goals with long-term strategic plans. Without a comprehensive and accessible guide to TPM, agencies risk inefficient use of resources, missed performance targets, and delays in addressing critical infrastructure needs.
Potential Benefits:
The TPM Blue Book will provide transportation agencies with a standardized, user-friendly resource to guide the implementation of performance management frameworks. Key benefits of this research include:
By equipping agencies with the tools to implement effective TPM systems, this research will contribute to the development of more resilient, sustainable, and responsive transportation networks.
To successfully develop and implement the Transportation Performance Management (TPM) Blue Book, several key considerations need to be addressed throughout the research and dissemination phases:
Note: More can be added to the above list.
By addressing these implementation considerations, the TPM Blue Book can be successfully developed, adopted, and utilized across diverse transportation agencies, ensuring it provides maximum value in improving transportation system performance.
Ateeth Dhumal
i. define organizational efficiency
ii. offer varying frameworks depending how an organization/agency works (5-6 differing
iii. agency scenarios
iv. get specific metrics for organizational/agency efficiency
v. offer a toolbox that different agencies can use
vi. develop guidelines on how efficiency measures/KPIs can be used/applied
The Reason Foundation produces a ranked list of state agencies
Are there better ways to measure agency effectiveness such as data envelopment analysis
Come up with ways other ways to add value such as wanting to be able to find peer agencies to learn from?
How much money are we actually spending to manage programs?
What is the effectiveness of the funds allocated?
Want to have state legislatures understand when they are underfunding an area and know the impact of it.
• Knowledge capture of retirees and other employees
• Best practices, case studies, tools (downloadable), experts
• Practical assistance that can quickly be understood and applied (simple)
• Identifying core business functions (knowledge interviews of outgoing employees, e.g.)
• Beyond procedural documentation
i. Recommendation of strategies to address changes in workforce.
ii. Strategies on identifying issues in workforce expectations.
iii. Framework to assess organizational culture/values – Bridging gap between agency culture and new workforce hires.
iv. Comparison of public vs. private organization approaches.
from symposium 1:
How to ensure the work gets done
Understand changing demographics
Training, transition plans
Tools - best practices (broadly)
Turnover and ability to aim employees, including leadership bench strength (transitioning into leadership positions)
Scan of practice
Broadly, look at other sectors
Mindset shifts - "farm team" approach - mentoring, training, non-traditional recruitment
High urgency
AASHTO Representative TBD
AASHTO
c. Research Objectives:
i. Learning how organizations can optimize the use of technologies.
ii. Leveraging technological advances to organizational needs.
Urgency: Mid to high priority over a long timeframe.
Potential Benefit: Creating an adaptable workforce, streamline/improve efficiency, technology leverages the skillsets of a workforce.
AASHTO Representative TBD
AASHTO
i. Genesis/imperative for this topic: There's a lot of turn-over occurring. Losing one key player can take down an agency's TAM strategy. How to build the bench?
ii. look at agencies where AM is integrated in the business processes as examples. Policies, documents, etc. org structure
iii. how to plan for management to come?
The greatest challenge we have is changing the culture, which is something we don't do very well as engineers and planners. Is there a way to outline the process to change the culture of the organizations with regards to implementing TAM. Talk to states that have done it— what worked and didn't work? States that need culture changed are least likely to read a report on this.
AASHTO Representative TBD
AASHTO
The objectives of this project are:
Recent trends observed in the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters and extreme weather- and climate change-related issues experienced by state DOTs increased the urgency of incorporating climate resilience into TAM strategic goals. Concerns related to satisfying mobility demands and reducing user impacts further exacerbate the urgency of these issues.
This study will provide state DOTs with theoretical and practical knowledge to align their TAM efforts with the broader objectives of improving mobility and climate resilience in their regions.
The research developed through this study will support agencies increase resilience considerations in their asset management practice. A cursory review of DOTs latest TAMPs revealed a basic incorporation of resilience considerations by agencies often noting identified threats to the system that could undermine system resilience, but lacking in tracking resilience improvements over time or methods to measure the current system resilience. This research will move toward further integrating resilience into asset management as well as decision-making.
Jacobs
Aimee Flannery
RS & H
Jennifer Gora
California DOT
Michael B. Johnson
Maryland DOT
Meredith Hill
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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)
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
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
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.
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.
NCHRP Project 23-27 Strategies to Strengthen Data-Driven Decision Making Details here.
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. One agency has identified the fact that they may run into contractor availability to meet the needs of the upcoming projects.
Changes in economy. Changes in young people's work styles. With IIJA money, how are agencies going to be able to spend it, manage it? NMDOT is getting $45M for bridge projects, they have to identify the projects and it will strain the workforce to meet the requirements.
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)
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.
Aimee Flannery
In July 2012 MAP-21 established requirements that each state developed a Transportation Asset Management Plan (TAMP) that, at a minimum to include pavement and bridge assets on the National Highway System (NHS) (23 USC 119). This requirement was further detailed, in October 2016, through the issuance of 23 CFR 515, that encourages but dos not require State DOTs to include all NHS infrastructure assets in their TAMPs, (23 CFR 515.9(c)). This can include major asset classes such as tunnels or “ancillary” asset classes, such as:
• Guardrail
• Sidewalks
• Small Culverts
• Sign Structures
• Retaining Walls
• ITS Equipment
• Traffic Signals
While many states are including these assets in their TAMPs, many others manage these assets outside their federal TAMPs in an effort to right-size the associated workload and costs.
• 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.
Reimagine the DOT Organizational and Decision Making Paradigm from - one that is driven by planning, design and construction – to one driven by the need to maintain and operate an established 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
- Process
- I.D. promising practices
- Assess likelihood of reproducing these results
- Investigate issues, assess tech transfer opportunities and methods
- Document results
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.
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.