LONG LIFE, GOOD HEALTH: ASSET MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR MAJOR TRANSPORTATION INVESTMENTS

Asset management, at root, is about performing maintenance activities with an eye to a facility's life-cycle costs. In recent years public agencies have experimented with several ways to encourage greater attention to the long-term value of preventive maintenance. Warranties, for example, offer an opportunity to hold a contractor responsible for the long-term performance of a facility. The state of New Mexico, for instance, contracted with a developer to design a major corridor widening, manage the construction, and provide a 20-year warranty on the work. Life-cycle pricing can also be internalized into contracts via shadow tolls, through which a public agency pays a variable fee for outsourced maintenance in proportion to the use of the facility. Regardless of the approach, clear performance standards and a solid means of measuring roadway performance against those standards are essential. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has recently issued a ruling requiring public agencies either to account to depreciation of infrastructure or to document maintenance activities that hold performance levels at a steady state. This ruling may have the unintended effect of increasing the attention given to facility performance and the financial benefits of preventive maintenance from a life-cycle cost perspective.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/conf/2000/cp24/cp24-011.pdf
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309072107
• Supplemental Notes:
  • 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.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Rahn, P
  • Tillman, R
  • McPherson, T
  • Dornan, D
• Conference:
  • Second National Conference on Transportation Finance
  • Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
  • Date: 2000-8-20 to 2000-8-23
• Publication Date: 2001

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Pagination: p. 90-96
• Monograph Title: SECOND NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TRANSPORTATION FINANCE, SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, AUGUST 20-24, 2000
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Board Conference Proceedings
  • Issue Number: 24
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 1073-1652

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accounting; Asset management; Conferences; Depreciation; Finance; Infrastructure; Life cycle costing; Performance based specifications; Preventive maintenance; Shadow tolls; Strategic planning; Transportation; Warranty
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Transportation (General); I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00818792
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309072107
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Oct 8 2001 12:00AM