Asset Management
What is Asset Management?
You might not think of highways as an "asset" that Coloradans own like government buildings, but they are. CDOT is now combining engineering data and technology with private-sector business approaches to proactively manage the health of these valuable highway assets.
This approach, known as "Asset Management," is being adopted around the country and is now required by the Federal government.
Federal legislation known as Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) requires state Departments of Transportation to develop risk-based asset management plans for the National Highway System. Each must identify objectives, measures, performance gaps, and investment strategies. CDOT is working to fulfill this obligation by formulating a plan to improve pavement, bridge and maintenance performance throughout the state while simultaneously boosting highway safety through both educational and engineering means.
CDOT recognizes the challenge ahead. We must balance limited funds with the public's desire to make system maintenance a top priority. Asset management will help give engineers and managers the data that they need to prioritize maintenance work in the face of rising costs and flat revenues, allowing our transportation system to endure for years to come.
CDOT's Risk-Based Asset Management Plan (RB AMP)
MAP-21 requires states to develop a risk-based asset management plan for pavement and bridges on the National Highway System (NHS), to improve or preserve the condition of the assets and performance of the highway system. States that do not develop and implement the asset management plan will see their federal transportation funding reduced by 35 percent. The plan must include:
- A summary list, including condition, of the state's pavement and bridges on the National Highway System;
- Asset management objectives and measures;
- Performance gap identification;
- Life-cycle cost and risk management analysis;
- A financial plan; and
- Investment strategies.
CDOT's plan includes many more assets than required by MAP-21.
CDOT maintains more than 9,100 miles of highways and about 3,400 bridges statewide as part of its mission to provide the best multi-modal transportation system for Colorado that most effectively and safely moves people, goods and information. Due to increased demand and diminishing funding, previous approaches to maintaining the transportation system are no longer sufficient.
As a result, CDOT's executive director and the Transportation Commission directed staff to develop the Risk-Based Asset Management Plan (RB AMP) to chronicle CDOT's history of asset management, and define a framework for implementing new asset management strategies.
What the Plan Documents
- The current and forecasted condition of assets;
- Asset performance goals established in policy;
- A process for using analysis and data to inform decisions;
- Specific investment strategies that CDOT will implement to maintain the transportation system at lowest life cycle costs; and
- A framework for how risk will be included in asset management decisions.
The RB AMP is about change; the plan updates existing asset management models, improves project-selection processes, and implements life cycle treatments to ensure that CDOT focuses on its most critical projects. These principles are moving from being mere concepts to becoming institutionalized as better ways of doing business. It will be a process of continual improvement and refinement as CDOT works to ensure the most effective use of limited funds.
