Project 12.6
Asset Management Practices for ITS Infrastructure
ITS provide valuable and cost-effective tools to the North/West Passage members for improving mobility, safety and efficiency. Because of their value, technology solutions are playing an increasing role for transportation agencies, resulting in more capital and operational expenditures. Additionally, travelers and agencies are more dependent upon the technologies reliably providing their functionality.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requires state departments of transportation are required to submit an annual Transportation Asset Management Plan (TAMP) to intended to serve as a "Strategic and systematic process of operating, maintaining, upgrading, and expanding physical assets effectively throughout their life cycle."[1] A TAMP provides a framework for resource allocation and use, and is intended to result in optimized transportation investment decision making based upon quality data and consistent analysis. The FHWA only requires reporting and analysis on, at a minimum, bridges and pavement.
Agencies can include assets beyond traditional infrastructure in their TAMPS, such as ITS, and some do. Examples of ITS in TAMPs are summarized in this report. However, there is no consensus on how to define ITS assets and how to effectively manage them. While agencies may document what they consider to be ITS assets, guidance for consistent data collection and analysis needed to report their condition, performance, lifecycles and potential risks is lacking.
The purpose of this report is to summarize the current state of ITS asset management, both in the NWP states and across the nation. The objectives of the report are to:
- Document the extent to which states recognize ITS in asset management practices.
- Describe the role of ITS asset management in optimizing transportation investment.
- Identify ITS asset management best practices among the NWP states.
- Identify needs among the NWP states to improve their ITS asset management.
The report is based on interviews, discussions and data provided by the NWP states. In addition, the TAMPs of more than a dozen other states that included ITS at some level were reviewed.