New Jersey’s Capital Investment Strategy: Case Study of Performance-Based Programming

Abstract

Capital investment strategy is a term used by the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) for a set of performance-based programming tools, including goals, objectives, performance measures, and alternative investment scenarios. Performance-based programming was first tried by NJDOT in the 1989 long-range transportation plan. Performance measures and benchmark investment targets were assigned to program categories within expected resources over a 5-year period. This approach was updated and expanded beginning in 1996 as part of a redesign of NJDOT’s planning and programming processes. In 1998 a detailed capital investment strategy was linked to the governor’s “vision plan,” including goals and objectives for a 12-year period. Some of these objectives had performance measures related to system condition (outcomes), and others had simpler performance measures. In 2000 the legislature enacted a state trust fund reauthorization bill that required NJDOT to submit an annual capital investment strategy report as a companion document to the annual proposed capital program. The act also set out several specific goals that were to be included in the report. The March 1, 2001, capital investment strategy report, which concluded that some of these goals were not feasible, led to a lawsuit by transportation advocacy groups, which was later dismissed.