Transportation Asset Management: Strategic Workshop for Department of Transportation Executives

Abstract

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) Task Force on Accelerating Innovation, partnered with the Joint AASHTO–FHWA–NCHRP International Technology Scanning Program, to conduct a 1-day, executive-level workshop on transportation asset management, December 13, 2006, in the National Academy of Sciences Lecture Room, 2100 C Street NW, Washington, D.C. This forum was limited to 15 senior executives and their asset management program managers. The agenda was developed to maximize dialogue and discussion. The program included the following highlights: International roundtable with speakers from Australia; Alberta, Canada; and the United Kingdom; U.S. roundtable and case studies with speakers from Florida, Michigan, Utah, and Ohio Departments of Transportation (DOTs); Focus on the role of asset management in the growing area of public–private partnerships (PPPs); and Extended dialogue time among senior executives. The program offered opportunities to learn how other states and countries have benefited from asset management: Better quantifying the condition of key assets; Improving financial projections by professionally dealing with shortfall and expectations; Improving system performance even with constant or declining dollars; Improving analyses and strategic investment options; Improving internal decision making; Improving dialogue with legislatures, governors, and citizens; Advancing culture change from expenditures to investments; and Applying asset management to better analyze PPPs.