Transportation Asset Management in Australia, Canada, England, and New Zealand

A significant challenge for U.S. transportation agencies is managing the transportation asset base while funding expansions of the network to meet increasing demands. The Federal Highway Administration, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and National Cooperative Highway Research Program sponsored a scanning study of asset management experience, techniques, and processes in Australia, Canada, England, and New Zealand. In its study, the U.S. team observed that asset management as an organizational culture and decisionmaking process is critical to transportation programs facing significant capital renewal and preservation needs and that successful programs require top-level commitment. The team also learned that agencies in the countries studied used asset management practices to obtain funding for transportation infrastructure. The team's recommendations for possible implementation in the United States include using asset management principles to assess and invest in the Interstate System, creating a National Asset Management Steering Committee to distribute information and provide training, developing a Web-based asset-management toolbox, and conducting research on asset management topics.