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The third installment in the pavement preservation checklist series, focusing on the procedure for thin hot-mix asphalt overlay.

The second installment in the pavement preservation checklist series, focusing on the procedure for chip seal application.

An increasing number of highway agencies have found that applying relatively low-cost surface preservation treatments can extend the service life of pavement. The Federal Highway Administration, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and National Cooperative Highway Research Program sponsored a scanning study of France, South Africa, and Australia to investigate innovative programs for pavement preservation. The U.S. delegation observed that the countries visited are committed to designing and building long-lasting structural pavement sections on their national roadway networks. The countries focus on road maintenance, using low-cost seals and thin overlays on surfaces to protect their investment in underlying layers, rather than on more costly rehabilitation. The scanning team's recommendations for U.S. application include developing demonstration projects using deep subbase and deep base roadway designs, testing innovative procedures to improve chip seal performance, conducting a best-practices seminar on long-term maintenance contracts, and evaluating pavement condition survey vehicles.

The objectives of this study were to gather information on asset management practices in the United States and overseas, develop a framework for transportation asset management, and apply this framework to produce the "Transportation Asset Management Guide." Phase I of the study encompassed information gathering, framework development, and recommendation of a research program. The products of Phase I have been issued in three separate volumes. This report constitutes the second volume, addressing a comprehensive transportation asset management framework. This framework defines transportation asset management within the context of this study, and establishes its basic concepts and elements. Its management approach is built on the idea that an agency's processes for resource allocation and utilization are at the core of asset management. Based on this concept, the report builds a framework for agency self-evaluation of its current and desired practices. This framework identifies key characteristics and criteria of transportation asset management in four basic areas relating to resource allocation and utilization: policy goals and objectives, planning and programming, program delivery, and information and analysis. State-of-the-art practices illustrate each of these characteristics and criteria to provide benchmarks by which agencies may establish targets for incremental improvement and gauge progress toward these targets. The report also discusses strategies for updating legacy management systems and data to better support asset management, and examines the relationship between transportation asset management and recently adopted standards for financial reporting of transportation infrastructure assets.

The objectives of this study were to gather information on asset management practices in the United States and overseas, develop a framework for transportation asset management, and apply this framework to produce the "Transportation Asset Management Guide." Phase I of the study encompassed information gathering, framework development, and recommendation of a research program. The products of Phase I have been issued in three separate volumes. This report constitutes the first volume, providing a synthesis of current information and practices in asset management.

Federal spending on Interstate highways has contributed to changes in residential and business land-use patterns. In 1991, GAO raised concerns about the condition of Interstate highways and rising levels of congestion. The original purposes for the Interstate system were to provide for efficient long-distance travel, support defense, and connect metropolitan and industrial areas. Today, the most important role that the Interstates perform, other than supporting safe travel, is moving freight traffic across their states. The federal government provides funding for, and oversight of, the Interstate system while the states do most of the maintaining and planning for the future of the system. Combined federal and state spending on the Interstate System increased from $13.0 billion in 1992 to 16.2 billion in 2000. States are required to pay ten percent of the cost of an Interstate project; however, GAO found that the average nonfederal share of urban Interstate projects was 15 percent and 11 percent for rural projects. Interstate highways are in better physical condition and are safer than other classes of roads, although they are generally more congested. The states expect that increased traffic, the aging of the infrastructure, and funding constraints will affect their ability to maintain physical and safety conditions of the Interstate Systems and to alleviate congestion, but the costs to address the factors pressuring their Interstates were difficult to determine.

This fact sheet advertises the Pavement Preservation Toolbox, which includes resources for transportation agencies looking to develop a pavement preservation program. The toolbox materials explain the preventive maintenance concept, selection of roads for preservation projects, and further information on state of the practice in pavement preservation.

Information on the development of a series of problem statements produced in a pavement preservation workshop. The workshop was designed to gather practitioners from various maintenance disciplines to discuss research needs in the area of pavement maintenance.

The first installment in the pavement preservation checklist series, focusing on the procedure for crack seal application.

In most Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Member countries, the road network constitutes one of the largest community assets and is predominately government-owned. Road administrations must maintain, operate, improve, replace and preserve this asset while, at the same time, carefully managing the scarce financial and human resources needed to achieve these objectives. All of this is accomplished under the close scrutiny of the public who pay for and are regular users of the road network, and who increasingly demand improved levels of service in terms of safety, reliability, environmental impact and comfort. Asset management as applied to the roads sector represents a "systematic process of maintaining, upgrading and operating assets, combining engineering principles with sound business practice and economic rationale, and providing tools to facilitate a more organized and flexible approach to making the decisions necessary to achieve the public's expectations". Governments are placing greater pressures on road administrations to improve the efficiency of, and accountability for, the management of the road network. Indeed, in many countries, local highway authorities face formal accountability and reporting requirements on how they manage their assets. Asset management systems offer the prospect of significantly improving road network management outcomes. This report is a review of asset management systems as applied to the roads sector and an analysis of the responses to a survey conducted among those countries represented on an OECD Working Group on Asset Management Systems.

This report reviews the applications of an asset management framework in the context of a road agency. The report offers information for agencies looking to gain an understanding of asset management, improve system performance, and make cost-effective decisions.

A short presentation that provides some introductory information about transportation asset management.