FEASIBILITY STUDY OF CHANGES TO THE HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE AND OPERATIONS COST INDEX

The highway maintenance and operations cost index, published annually by FHWA, was established in its current form in 1947 and has not been revised since. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the procedures used to develop the index, and to consider the feasibility of options--retaining it in its current form, revising, redeveloping, or discontinuing the index. This study included several tasks: a literature review of the theoretical aspects of price index development; a detailed survey of state department of transportation needs for the index, current uses, relationship to maintenance operations, preferences for change, and assessments of the utility of different options; a detailed review of other construction and maintenance indexes and related cost data; analyses of current maintenance index behavior, and comparison with construction indexes of various types; and recommendations to FHWA regarding the future of the index. On the basis of the findings of this study, the most favorable option is index redevelopment. A revised index will require collaboration between FHWA and the states for the critical tasks of identifying candidate items of labor, equipment, and materials for a simpler market basket; actually defining and building the market basket; redesigning forms (with clearer instructions) for states' submission of data; creating the weighting functions to translate state unit cost data into regional and national composites; and defining the regions that are to be encompassed. Furthermore, this collaboration must continue on a long-term basis to review the index periodically and revise it as needed.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1990/1268/1268-019.pdf
• Record URL:
  • https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=FEASIBILITY+STUDY+OF+CHANGES+TO+THE+HIGHWAY+MAINTENANCE+AND+OPERATIONS+COST+INDEX&author=M.+Markow&author=E.+Seguin&author=E.+Ireland&author=D.+Freund&publication_year=1990
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1268, Highway Maintenance Operations and Research 1990. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Authors:
  • Markow, Michael J
  • Seguin, Edmond L
  • Ireland, Eugene F
  • Freund, Deborah M
• Publication Date: 1990

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: p. 164-169
• Monograph Title: Highway maintenance operations and research 1990
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 1268
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Analysis; Cost indexes; Data collection; Highway maintenance; Highway operations; Recommendations; Redevelopment; Reviews; State departments of transportation; Surveys
• Uncontrolled Terms: Revisions
• Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Research; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00602670
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309050235
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Dec 31 1990 12:00AM