Emerging Issues in Transportation Facilities Management

Abstract

During the past decade, considerable attention has been given to the country’s transportation infrastructure problems. National, state, and local needs studies have documented the scope and severity of the problem. Significant state and federal resources have been committed to long-term basic research to better manage facilities, and a variety of new financial mechanisms, many involving private-sector participation, have been implemented at the state and local levels. This paper reviews the current state of the art in life-cycle facility management, and identifies key issues and research directions that need to be addressed. While much has been accomplished in the area of facility management, the real potential of introducing new methods of managing fixed facility systems has only begun to be exploited. By summarizing the current status of facility management system development and identifying key research, education, and implementation needs and issues, the ASCE Urban Transportation Division’s Transportation Facilities Management Committee hopes to define an agenda for ASCE and the broader engineering community to accelerate the introduction of facility management concepts at all levels of government and within the private sector.