Several State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are considering revising their right-of-way business practices with the goal of simplifying and streamlining processes. Current right-of-way practice and procedure manuals are the products of 40 years of statutes, case law, regulations, management styles and best practices. The procedural manuals have chapters to cover elements such as: a) appraisal; b) appraisal review; c) relocation planning and assistance; d) relocation eligibility and supplemental payments; e) nonresidential relocations; f) acquisition and negotiations; g) legal settlements; h) eminent domain; i) titles and closing; j) property management; k) leasing; l) sale of excess property; m) mapping and geographic information systems (GIS); n) encroachments; o) contracting for services; and p) administrative costs. Procedures and guidelines are often an accumulation of historical practice or those adopted from other agencies. State procedures vary widely because of differences in State laws. Local agencies are required to follow State DOT procedural manuals when they use State or Federal funding. Questions arise as new staff try to understand the reason or underlying basis for requirements. Contractors and consultants face a wide array of requirements and forms among the various States. This research is in support of the AASHTO Highway Subcommittee Right-of-Way and Utility strategic plan to provide leadership and support to member agency right-of-way staff. This research will provide new direction and lead to immediate cost savings by reducing the hours required to accomplish certain functions. This research will result in streamlined business practices that are easier to maintain, cost effective and result in delivery of projects sooner. Research is needed to provide information to State DOTs and local agencies to rationally evaluate current right-of-way procedures and business practices; to determine what function is served by each procedure; to determine the need for each procedure, i.e. statute or practice; to document the benefits and operational logic for continuing a procedure, modifying, or eliminating it, evaluate the cost of maintaining current procedures and to quantify the benefits from them. This includes, but is not limited to, the current cost of agents, training new agents and administrative costs on a parcel or tract basis. Determine what processes are essential to providing a consistent product and comply with statutory requirements, such as the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 (Uniform Act), as well as the most common elements of State eminent domain laws, identify institutional, political, and economic barriers to the adoption of procedures that will be easier to maintain for the next 20 years, and examine and compare several common types of existing FHWA approved right-of-way manuals used by State DOTs and local agencies and common State regulations. Agencies will be contacted and staff will be interviewed to ascertain what are the origins, purpose and authorities for the existing procedures; what criteria and procedures are needed, as a minimum, to protect owner and tenant rights; what procedures would work if the agency could start anew; how and/or whether procedures might be modified for local agency use, i.e., a stand alone manual for local agencies; what are the issues in administering procedures that need to be addressed to assure consistent application; and what are the institutional, political, and economic barriers to implementation? A major objective of the research will be to develop a rationale or basis for a new or modified approach. This will include an objective analysis of all key elements mentioned above, i.e., appraisal, appraisal review, relocation, etc. This research would culminate by analyzing the typical right-of-way business model for the four major elements of appraisal, acquisition, relocation, and property management, and developing a revised model that is less costly to maintain. It would outline a sample procedural manual with forms that could be used to administer a simplified and cost-effective right-of-way program that is responsive to national statutes and the Uniform Act. The resulting business model would be accompanied by a cost/benefit analysis and recommended roll-out implementation plan that could be readily adopted and applied by State DOTs and local agencies for national consistency. One of the initial goals of the Uniform Act was to create a fair and consistent process for the acquisition of real property by public agencies. This research would help us assure the continued uniformity of the process. This research will be a direct follow-on to the 2008 International Scan for ROW and Utilities called "Integrating & Streamlining Right of Way and Utility Processes with Planning, Environment, and Design." Ideas and strategies derived from the 2008 International Scan will feed directly into revised business practices. State DOTs who undertake pilot projects in 2009 will be able to use lessons learned and provide input to this research effort. The timing is beneficial for all parties in that this research product will bring about full implementation of the 2008 streamlining strategies. This research will provide new direction and lead to immediate cost savings by reducing the hours required to accomplish certain functions. This research will result in streamlined business practices that are easier to maintain, cost effective and result in delivery of projects sooner. The effort devoted to training new right-of-way agents, who may or may not stay with the agency, is becoming cost prohibitive and is time consuming. It is anticipated that there will be many institutional barriers to overcome. Many right-of-way agents have adapted to the current procedures and will be resistant to change. State DOT legal staff also may resist changes, thinking that revised procedures may affect property owner rights. In order to address these barriers, the final research report should contain an outline of a revised procedural manual that would be sufficient to meet Federal regulations and laws, allowing each State to augment this information with specifics to address that particular State's laws.

This report describes how risk management and data management may be used by transportation agencies to support management target-setting for performance-based resource allocation. As the final product of a second phase of NCHRP Project 08-70, Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies, this report supplements NCHRP Report 666, "Target-Setting Methods and Data Management to Support Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies: Volume I: Research, Volume II: Guide for Target-Setting and Data Management," published in 2010. Transportation agencies at all levels of government are embracing performance measurement to improve agency efficiency and accountability. Setting performance targets generally entails balancing competing objectives and dealing with political implications in a context of uncertainties about economic conditions, fiscal constraints, climate conditions, customer demands, and more. Good data on the transportation system and its performance provides the information managers need to set targets, but good management depends on clear understanding of the risks that future conditions will differ significantly from what today's best information suggests. Performance targets and consequent resource-allocation decisions established with such understanding are more likely to ensure that the agency and the transportation system perform well. This report presents advice and illustrative case studies, in the form of primers, on using risk management and data management practices in support of performance-based resource allocation, and specifically performance-target setting. The information will be useful to senior agency managers seeking to develop and improve their performance-management practices.

Transportation agencies are developing procedures and guidelines for managing the quality of pavement data collected to ensure the data meet the needs of the pavement management process. This study reviews the quality management practices being employed by public highway agencies for automated, semi-automated, and manual pavement data collection and delivery. Information was gathered through literature review, surveys of U.S. state and Canadian province public agencies and private contractors, and selected interviews.