Making Road Management Systems Successful

This paper presents the main findings of an investigation conducted to identify factors that facilitate the successful implementation of Road Management Systems (RMS). The investigation covered 21 road agencies in 16 different countries. As with any computerized system, the successful implementation of a RMS depends on the interaction of three fundamental components: Processes, People and Technology. The study found that agencies successful in their implementations built strong foundations in all of these fundamental components over a number of years. First and foremost, successful agencies developed an “asset management mindset”: they implement policies for managing their highway infrastructure as an asset whose value must be maintained and improved. They had appropriately-staffed organizational units with specific responsibility to implement the RMS, and the results were validated and utilized. Key elements of institutionalization that must be reviewed and explicitly addressed by the RMS are Business Plans, Budgets, and Policies. The RMS must be considered in the framework of the agency IT policies and architecture and Commercial Off-the-Shelf software wherever possible. If an agency has any concerns about its ability to operate and maintain specialist data collection equipment, then they should seriously consider outsourcing of data collection. Finally, no system is static. The most successful agencies have implemented continual quality improvement programs and are always looking for room for refinement and improvement in data collection procedures, quality assurance, road deterioration modeling, etc.