Developing Infrastructure Management Systems for Small Public Agency

Abstract

Motivated by the management system requirement of the Intermodal Surface Transportation and Efficiency Act, efforts are being made toward expanding an existing pavement management system (PMS) into a more comprehensive infrastructure management system (IMS) in a number of small public agencies in the nation. During this conversion process, however, it is very important to recognize the differences among various infrastructure facilities as well as their common characteristics. The quality of service of each infrastructure type to the public should be evaluated for the efficient allocation of the limited infrastructure budget recognizing their interactive relationships. The most critical issues that should be addressed before expanding a PMS into an IMS are discussed in this paper: relative benefits of different types, universal location referencing system, consistent condition evaluation, transformation of data into decisions, and automated mapping. The IMS development and implementation experiences are then illustrated using an actual application for a small town in Canada.