TRANSPORTATION ASSET MANAGEMENT: NEW GUIDE ADVANCES STATE OF THE PRACTICE

Asset management is a strategic approach to allocating and using available resources cost-effectively. A National Cooperative Highway Research Program Project, Asset Management Guidance for Transportation Agencies, has assembled a comprehensive guide to asset management, defining principles and detailing the applications to transportation agency investments in infrastructure preservation, operations, and capacity expansion. This article is a preview of the concepts, principles, and techniques described in the guide, with examples of the improvements that asset management can introduce in the ways an agency allocates resources and employs different types of investments.