Risk-Informed Transit Project Oversight

Abstract

This paper presents an evolutionary process of integrating risk management into the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTAs) new-start transit project program. New-start transit projects generally request federal funding assistance through the FTA. FTA funding commitments occur early in the project’s development, and as such the project is subject to significant risk, which has historically caused early estimates to be unreliable. To provide more reliable funding commitments and to better inform decision-makers, the FTA introduced risk-assessment requirements in 2002. Results from the earliest efforts indicated two areas for improvement: a more holistic method for risk assessment, and a better integration of risk management into standard project management practices. Although there are insufficient results, to date, to fully validate this new process, the purpose of this paper is to provide information on background and methodology to industry risk practitioners and researchers.