ASSET MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN AND TIERED SYSTEM PROCESS

This study has developed a five-year transportation asset management plan for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). This study has also developed a proposed tiering structure of the state highway system to support asset management. Asset management represents a strategic approach to managing transportation infrastructure. It embodies a set of principles to improve how an agency conducts business, how it reaches decisions, and how it processes, uses, and communicates information. CDOT, in consultation with the Colorado Transportation Commission, has already taken a number of steps toward improved asset management. A unique Investment Category approach organizes program investments within a policy-oriented framework incorporating explicit measures of performance. Other steps taken by CDOT include updates of the statewide planning process and the program prioritization process, establishment of maintenance program levels of service, institution of customer surveys, and updates of relevant information technology applications. The recommended transportation asset management plan builds upon these established concepts, methods, information, and tools to propose specific actions over the next five years in the following areas: (1) completion of all elements of the Investment Category structure; (2) incorporation of asset management principles in CDOT's planning and programming processes, building on a tiered structuring of CDOT assets that has also been recommended in the study; (3) integration of asset management information on a GIS platform, and renewal of Information Technology strategic planning to support asset management department-wide; and (4) strengthening of program delivery mechanisms and measures. The recommended tiering of the state highway system is built around the concept of interregional corridors, because CDOT is the sole provider of significant interregional highway transportation.