Freese, Richard

Asset management principles and practices are strongly aligned with sustainability concepts; aligning a local government’s asset management practices with its sustainability initiatives helps to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery and investment decisions. This Guidebook has been prepared by the Research Implementation Committee (RIC) of the LRRB and was built on the foundation of the research conducted for the Final Research Synthesis Report. In addition, the RIC researched other public documents. The purpose of this document is to provide guidance in developing an asset inventory and condition assessment, establishing performance measures and goals, identifying and rating risk, determining lifecycle planning and funding strategies, and creating asset management plans and programs using existing and new resources. The research and references cited in this Guidebook demonstrates that the “worst first” approach to asset investment is not sustainable based on the limited financial resources available to local government agencies. A paradigm shift within public and private agencies has begun that is based on sustainable asset investment strategies that utilizes a “mix of fixes.” The Guidebook will provide step-by-step guidance for local agencies covering everything from “Getting Started” to “Taking Asset Management to the Next Level” and valuable insight and success outcomes on what others have done, what worked, and what lessons have been learned.

The scope of this Transportation Research Synthesis (TRS) addressed the following: (1) Identify how agencies are communicating the cost of maintaining their roadway infrastructure to their elected officials and the public. (2) Identify what life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) methods and tools are currently being used by local and state agencies. (3) Identify what data elements are needed to conduct a LCCA on roadways and determine which of the data elements are annually submitted to State Aid.