U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
The scan team has identified 31 observations of interest to transportation officials in the United States. These observations are organized in five major categories—asset management's role in decisionmaking, leadership and organizational structure, asset management technical activities, program delivery, and human resources.
1. Top-level agency commitment (at the very highest levels) in support of asset management was apparent in every case. Asset management was viewed by the chief executive officer/chief operating officer of the agency as an important tool for managing the agency's portfolio and for maintaining credibility with the agency's constituencies. Part of obtaining this high-level commitment was showing how asset management could produce more cost-effective program results.
2. In almost all cases, changing the organizational culture to think of asset management as a key business area was pointed to as the key challenge. The evolution in the use of asset management was viewed as changing the culture of the organization.
3. Each agency had a management position or office responsible for asset management. This focal point for asset management provided guidance to other units in the organization and acted as a filter for asset information directed to different decisionmakers in the agency. In addition, this office usually acted as a major participant in national or state efforts to enhance asset management activities more broadly.
4. One of the most important aspects of the observed asset management programs was the bringing together of agency resources and capabilities for undertaking asset management and creating an asset management culture in the organization. Although many different units in an organization collected data and produced information on asset performance and condition, in several cases this information was synthesized at key decision points in the agency.
5. Each site visited has made a commitment to, and allocated resources for, developing an asset management program, although the approaches varied in scope and content. Although the scan team found no common, integrated asset management model in the sites visited, the basic components of each asset management effort were the same. Importantly, asset management approaches were found in situations where maintenance outsourcing was a major part of program delivery, as well as where program delivery was done primarily with an agency's own staff.
6. In all of the sites visited, the agencies competed for resources across all government programs (such as education, public safety, community services, etc.). Few agencies had access to transportation-specific revenue sources, so they had to compete as “whole-of-government.” Several examples where good data on infrastructure needs provided justification for additional funds to be put into transportation infrastructure programs showed asset management's role in such a decisionmaking context.
7. Continuity in government has assured a stable environment for asset management to evolve. Top government transportation officials have held their positions for a long time (in U.S. terms). Once these individuals were convinced of the value of an asset management approach, they supported continuing asset management efforts.
8. Several major drivers were identified for adopting an asset management approach. Similar to the United States, increasing numbers of trucks using the road network, aging infrastructure, and congested road networks have created pressures on infrastructure owners. This has resulted in a need to better manage an important asset base with limited resources. It has also resulted in providing this management responsibility with a limited number of staff (in some cases, staff cutbacks) while at the same time maintaining staff capability. Finally, linking asset management to broader community and agency goals and conducting tradeoffs among asset categories were mentioned as important characteristics of individual asset management efforts. In several cases, asset management was adopted during hard economic times, so it was viewed as a way to provide the most cost-efficient program delivery.
9. In some cases, national or state legislation has been an important catalyst to view asset management in a different way (e.g., New Zealand's sustainability law and Victoria's Road Management Act). In Australia, in particular, recent changes in liability laws have been important factors for developing (Victoria) or stimulating thinking about (Queensland and New South Wales) a more systematic approach to asset management. In England, national laws requiring the development of local transport plans and the legal mandate to maintain a community's asset base have led to better integration of asset management into local planning and decisionmaking. In many cases, changing governmental accounting rules have also motivated a closer examination of how to assign value to assets.
10. A good asset management program conveyed to elected officials strong stewardship of transportation assets, and has been an important consideration in increasing funding for transportation. In other words, agencies have been able to demonstrate the need for additional support, the link between investment and system performance, and the effect on the community of investing in infrastructure (Alberta, New Zealand, and VicRoads, in particular, illustrate this).
11. Statements of intent tie an agency's vision and key goals to levels of service or performance measures, providing important vision and accountability points of departure for asset management. These performance measures, most of which do not deal with asset management, are used to assure that agency actions relate to government policies. In the case of asset management, performance measures on the condition, use, and functionality of the transportation asset have been used to monitor system performance trends and the overall effectiveness of investment programs. In England, for example, the asset management approach the national Department for Transport encourages for local governments is based on performance indicators and targets.
At the strategic or upper-management level, only the most important information needed for establishing funding policies by agency heads or for monitoring agency progress toward policy achievement was provided. The operating core of the agency often received and produced information on many different performance/condition measures.
12. Asset management has been integrated into the many different corporate or agency planning and policy documents. For example, the scan team found asset management incorporated into strategic policy statements/agency visions, performance measures, asset-specific plans (e.g., state highway plans), tactical operations (e.g., contract specifications for maintenance outsourcing), and job descriptions. Asset management was incorporated into multiyear planning efforts, often in 1-year, 5-year, 10-year and 25-year plans. The total asset management approach suggests consistency in agency directions and activities.
13. Some advanced examples of asset management have also begun to integrate asset management principles and activities into a range of agency activities and products not specifically focused on asset management. This reflects the fact that many agencies faced transportation problems similar to those in the United States (e.g., congestion, safety, system operations, environmental quality, etc.) and that many nonmajor asset-based solutions (such as operations strategies) are being considered. For example, Transit New Zealand is attempting to link asset management efforts to its environmental policy and at the local level to community quality of life. In England, asset management is supposed to be incorporated into local transportation plans that focus on many different aspects of transportation system performance.
14. It was interesting to note the blurring of what is maintenance and how it relates to asset management for investment decisions. In some cases, periodic maintenance was portrayed as the asset management program, rather than as just one component of such a strategy. New South Wales has incorporated capital renewal projects (which in some cases meant total replacement of existing structures or portions of roads) into its network infrastructure program, a program that focuses on infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation. The justification for this was that such projects are acceptable as long as road capacity is not increased. Projects that significantly increased capacity were considered part of the formal project development process, often requiring environmental assessment studies.
15. Consistency and cooperation were apparent in some cases among different levels of government in their approach to asset management. National or state agencies worked with local governments to provide guidance and/or participate in user groups. This was especially true in Alberta, England, and New Zealand, and in some cases in Australia.
16. Life cycle costing (also known as whole-of-life costing) has been adopted in each site as the basic approach to program and project costing. Importantly, data identification and collection were targeted to support this approach.
17. In only a few cases was any effort made to conduct technical tradeoff assessments among asset categories, and these were heavily based on engineering judgment Although the scan team looked for examples where tradeoff analysis occurred among different asset categories or among different programs areas (such as maintenance, capital expansion, and capital renewal), it found very few. It was clear that all of the agencies were working toward such a capability.
18. Many officials talked about “optimizing” decisions or “optimization approaches.” In U.S. terms, this means using quantitative analysis techniques to produce the most economically efficient outcome. The scan team believes the term, as used, really meant providing a balanced investment portfolio that reflected community goals and policy desires.
19. All of the agencies used risk assessment in their asset management program. For example, the likelihood of disruption or failure of certain types of infrastructure was made a conscious part of the asset management analysis in New Zealand (subject to high levels of natural disruptions). In Edmonton, a risk or vulnerability measure has been developed and incorporated into the formal project assessment process. In New South Wales, the assessment of risk appeared to be a driving force in developing the network infrastructure program. In England, risk was used to help prioritize projects. Not surprisingly, the risk assessment associated with a concessionaire's participation in a public-private partnership related to those factors that affected revenue generation, while that for public services tended to relate to safety, public support, and customer service factors.
It appeared that the risk assessment approach was also used as a way to educate and obtain asset management buy-in from elected officials. The scan team's sense is that all of the sites visited have more formal risk applications and use them more in asset management applications than do agencies in the United States.
20. Government accounting procedures were viewed in several cases as inappropriate for assigning value to assets and driving asset management decisions. Based on experience in Queensland and England, asset management systems were viewed as much more appropriate to use for asset valuation than straight-line depreciation accounting rules.
21. Defining core purposes of the agency and investment program and determining the necessary technical support structure were considered important first steps in implementing asset management. Piecing together the supporting databases was described as critically important. In this construct, several agencies the team visited viewed data itself as an asset to be managed and replaced when it no longer served its function.
22. All of the agencies visited are adopting the approach of developing locational referencing systems for database support for asset management. Instead of creating one comprehensive database for all assets under an agency's responsibility, agencies are relying on existing databases (even when they have been developed with different formats and levels of comprehensiveness) to support their asset management programs. In addition, several agencies adopted quality-control procedures to make sure that the data collected was high quality. In one example, 30 percent of the lane kilometers were resampled every year to check the consistency, accuracy, and uniformity of the original data collection. In some cases, agencies are beginning to question the range of data collected and to assess the data's usefulness in supporting the decisionmaking process.
An impressive aspect of the database systems was the wide extent to which the data was available within an agency. Many said that if you have a computer on your desk, you can access the asset management database.
23. Data-collection approaches and technologies are not that different from those used in the United States. The team saw on national networks pavement condition measuring vehicles (SCRIM), falling weight deflectometers, ITS collection of traffic data, use of GIS and GPS, use of the International Road Index (IRI), etc. Somewhat different from the United States, much more data is typically collected on a range of characteristics (e.g., skid resistance data). VicRoads is exploring the use of on-ground sensors, early warning systems, and nondestructive testing technologies as part of its data-collection efforts. At the other end of the technology spectrum, annual visual inspections of asset condition are conducted in London using clipboards.
24. The experience with deterioration modeling is not uniform across the agencies visited, and in many cases was quite limited. For example, no common definition exists for remaining service life for different assets, and in some cases agency officials questioned what this concept really meant. The experience with deterioration modeling ranges from commonly used software programs to reliance on experience and expertise in determining the most critical investments for preserving or enhancing future system performance.
25. One of the most important observations from this scan is the importance of incorporating strong asset management principles in public-private partnership (PPP) agreements when such projects are considered. This was especially true in Victoria and New South Wales, where agency officials described the learning process they went through in subsequent PPP projects to have a better asset management provision incorporated into the concessionaire's agreement or deed. The model that appears to have been adopted in the sites visited was the use of input-output performance criteria as part of the concessionaire's deed that, in essence, guided the asset management strategy for the project. The concessionaire's response was to provide adequate funding in its business model to provide the desired asset management program. This institutional learning process is an important experience for U.S. asset owners considering entering into such arrangements.
26. In all of the sites visited, transportation agencies have used private contracts for delivering much, if not all, of their maintenance and minor capital construction programs. Preventive and renewal maintenance are important parts of a comprehensive asset management program, so the relationship between how and when assets are maintained and the contractors' program responsibilities becomes an important consideration in determining the overall effectiveness of asset management efforts. The key approach was to encourage contractor ownership of asset management in the delivered program. For example, in a performance-based contracting regime, an agency must make sure that the structural integrity of pavements is maintained or addressed when contractors are making maintenance investment decisions. In some cases in which contracts were let before a system of performance management was in place, questions of service quality, asset condition, and price occurred.
Agencies in England, which has many years of experience with maintenance outsourcing, appear to be moving to a hybrid strategy of service provision by including owner agencies in service provision partnerships, and in some cases providing services themselves again.
27. Agencies have made efforts to reach out to public officials and, in some cases, to the general public, to convey the importance of an asset management policy. In Edmonton and New Zealand, for example, such outreach has been considered successful in developing support for agency funding. In all cases, the state ministers of transportation have bought into asset management as an important policy focus. In at least two cases (New Zealand and Victoria), focus groups were used to affirm the importance assigned to maintenance and capital renewal program investment. In other cases, focus groups were used to determine the attitudes and reactions of the general public toward the agency's priorities and resource allocation. In Edmonton, an infrastructure advisory committee consisting of important business and community leaders has been established.
28. Australia, New Zealand, and England, in particular, have very active asset management professional associations and user groups, spearheaded by local officials, that have developed materials aimed at both public officials and practicing transportation professionals. The scanning team found impressive asset management outreach material in England and New Zealand. In both cases, the initiatives were spearheaded by local government associations or national working groups (or alliances as they were called). Austroads, Australia's equivalent to AASHTO, is in the process of putting together asset management material, much of which is found in separate reports.
29. An effective asset management program has a strong human resource element. In some cases, an asset management program (and usually private outsourcing of maintenance) was implemented at the same time staff cutbacks occurred. Every agency visited, however, noted that a good asset management program requires capabilities in understanding the data-collection process and what the data mean. When private concessions were used for data collection and maintenance efforts, the owner agencies needed capable staff to manage the contracts. In almost every case, agencies have added staff since their low points in the 1980s and 1990s. Training (see below) thus has become an important human resource support activity.
30. Several agency personnel systems have created positions with asset management in the job responsibilities. As officials in England noted, local government positions for asset management professionals, and civil engineers in general, are being advertised with only limited success in attracting qualified applicants.
31. In many agencies the scan team visited, asset management training has been an important aspect of their asset management strategy, not only for staff but also for other jurisdictions using asset management approaches. In Alberta, England, New Zealand, and Queensland, in particular, manuals and best-practice procedures have been developed to promote consistency in asset management applications.
