Cross-Assets Trade-off Analysis: Why Are We Still Talking About It?

While strategic level transportation asset management need to be driven by cross-asset trade-off analysis, the literature has been lacking in the techniques and tools to support global optimization and trade-off across asset types. This paper presents a cross-asset optimization and demonstrates its application to the strategic, very long-term (20+ years) planning for mixed assets. The case study is based on actual and complete dataset of four types of transportation assets of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. The optimization and trade-off analysis for this paper was carried using a tool called TAMWORTH. The cross-asset trade-off approach in TAMWORTH is based on linear programming and innovative improvements that reduces the problem size, and facilitates rapid solution of the multi-period optimization problem. With these innovations, TAMWORTH is capable of applying global optimization to conduct cross-asset trade-off analysis for over 25 years for the full set of transportation assets. The case study results show that an objective function based on condition maximization outperforms a cost minimization objective at target level of conditions. The nature of trade-off of activities, both in type of treatment and asset, and the timing is very complex, and hence impossible to replicate using engineering judgement. Given the associated obvious economic gains of cross-asset trade-off analyses, it is worth the effort of adopting advanced analysis tools that deploys true mathematical optimization to support the strategic long-term planning in transportation asset management.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Mrawira, Donath M
  • Amador, Luis E
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 88th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2009-1-11 to 2009-1-15
• Date: 2009

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 19p
• Monograph Title: TRB 88th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternatives analysis; Asset management; Assets; Case studies; Civil engineering; Optimization; Strategic planning
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01128814
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 09-1896
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: May 19 2009 7:48AM