AN ASSET MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT MODEL FOR STATE DOTs

In the past, many state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in the U.S. managed their highway assets on a "worst first" basis and planned their highway projects in a tactical rather than strategic fashion. Due to increasingly tight highway budgets and recognition of long term benefits of asset management systems, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has strongly pushed and encouraged state DOTs to implement asset management for managing their highway assets and highway projects. Currently, many DOTs have actively implemented and are in the process of applying this asset management concept for their highway infrastructure. However, different DOTs are developing different asset management systems because of their different organizational structures, data management structures, relationship with the legislature, and investment priorities. This study first identifies asset management indicators which are essential to successfully implementing asset management systems for State highway assets. The research team conducted a survey of asset management experts and reviewed the practices and policies of leading DOTs in asset management. Based on these indicators, this study develops an Asset Management Assessment Model (AM²) for different asset management systems. This model can be used by different DOTs to evaluate their current asset management systems and identify their strong areas and also their weak areas to improve in order to fully benefit from the advanced concept of asset management.