Research Program Design---Administration of Highway and Transportation Agencies. 2006 AASHTO Bottom Line Scoping
For the past several years, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has used the Highway Economic Requirements System (HERS) and National Bridge Investment Analysis System (NBIAS) software models to estimate future investment requirements for roadways and bridges of the Nation's highway system. The U. S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) reports these estimates to the Congress in the agency's biennial <em>Conditions and Performance Report</em>. The models have introduced well-structured benefit-cost analysis methods into the national investment-needs assessment process, estimating the total costs of highway and bridge improvements that are warranted by user-cost savings and other benefits likely to accrue if these investments are made. The models are sophisticated and complex, but represent a reasoned and defensible approach to projecting the investment required to maintain and improve the highway system to serve the nation's economy. To make this approach accessible to the state agencies that are responsible for managing the system, FHWA has produced the Highway Economic Requirements System - State Version (HERS-ST), an extension of the HERS model that individual states can use to predict the investment required to maintain defined highway system performance levels on the state's highway system. Despite the improvements brought to national and state-level investment needs analyses by the HERS, NBIAS, and HERS-ST models, there are still uncertainties associated with the investment-needs projections. For example, the models rely on assumptions reflecting model-users' expectations about future economic conditions, travel demand, and other parameters influencing the models' outcome. Estimated investment requirements may vary as these assumptions are changed to reflect the particular expectations and perspectives of different users. In addition, there are potentially substantial investments--for example, in highway interchanges or maintenance of traffic flow during major reconstructions - that may be neglected or very indirectly estimated by the models but needed to ensure system performance. These investment needs must be estimated using other methods. In 2002, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) prepared a <em>Highway and Transit Bottom Line </em>report based on independent analysis of national highway and public transportation investment needs. This analysis employed models used by FHWA and incorporated data and results of the model used by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), but reflected the perspectives of the states. AASHTO's goals in preparing that report were to ensure that national resource needs are appropriately assessed and that state perspectives on investment needs are effectively identified and represented in legislative and other policy discussions. The analysis provided a basis for engaging state and federal policy makers in discussions of significant issues shaping the legislative agenda. Such discussions must continue as policy makers consider future transportation legislation. The objective of this project is to emulate and improve upon the process used to develop the AASHTO <em>2002 Bottom Line</em> report as it applied to highways, with updated and enhanced analyses, to produce information on investment needs for preparation of a 2007 report. The project will be conducted in two parts: (A) application of HERS, NBIAS, and HERS-ST models and other analysis procedures with parameters reflecting the states' priorities and best available information to produce investment needs estimates, and (B) assessment of the implications of these investment needs estimates and assistance to AASHTO staff in preparation of the <em>2007 Bottom Line Report.</em></font></span></div><div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font size="3"> </font></span></div></span></div>
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Completed
- Funding: $300000.00
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Contract Numbers:
Project 20-24(54)G
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Sponsor Organizations:
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
444 North Capitol Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20001National Cooperative Highway Research Program
Transportation Research Board
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20001 -
Project Managers:
Lemer, Andrew
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Performing Organizations:
Cambridge Systematics, Incorporated
150 Cambridge Park Drive, Suite 4000
Cambridge, MA United States 02140-2369 -
Principal Investigators:
Pisarski, Alan
Reno, Arlee
- Start Date: 20071107
- Expected Completion Date: 0
- Actual Completion Date: 20090506
- Source Data: RiP Project 17064
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Benefit cost analysis; Economic analysis; Highways; Interchanges; Roadside improvement; Travel demand
- Uncontrolled Terms: System performance
- Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Planning and Forecasting;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01464558
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: National Cooperative Highway Research Program
- Contract Numbers: Project 20-24(54)G
- Files: RIP, USDOT
- Created Date: Jan 3 2013 2:44PM