Current Practices of Transportation Infrastructure Maintenance Investment Decision Making in the United States

Abstract

Public infrastructure is facing many challenges resulting in capacity reduction capped with funding limitation. Thus, not only is significant funding required to maintain the infrastructure under the current challenges, but infrastructure maintenance investment decision-making practices also require assessment to plan for future improvements. The objective of this study is to assess the state of the practice of the decision-making entities involved in transportation infrastructure management in the United States at the district DOT level. The covered aspects include current decision-making considerations, evaluation of investment practices, and performance assessment practices. Sixty-three out of 244 approached districts/regions across 26 states responded to the survey. Major findings revealed that physical condition is typically a main decision parameter, whereas a majority of the districts are currently working under budgetary constraints having (on an average) 3% budget deficit. Alignments drawn between certain federal laws and findings identified few gaps in adoption of asset management concepts, consideration of lifecycle approach, and performance measurement with business and management perspective, recommended to be covered through awareness and training programs in collaboration with academia.