Risk Assessment Techniques for Transportation Asset Management

As transportation agencies are faced with aging and deteriorating infrastructure in a context of limited resources, it becomes imperative that assets are managed efficiently and effectively. To this end, Federal Regulations Title 23 CFR Part 515 require state transportation agencies to develop Risk-Based Transportation Asset Management Plans (TAMP), including a risk management plan. The risk management plan must include identification, assessment, evaluation, and prioritization of risks, as well as a mitigation plan for addressing and monitoring top priority risks. State transportation agencies are seeking to improve the assessment of risks to transportation assets as part of optimized investment decision-making. Transportation agencies must contend with a wide variety of risks as they manage transportation assets. Owners must respond to impacts of events both within and outside their control. These risks can include funding uncertainty, regulatory changes, leadership and policy changes, increasing costs, severe weather events, evolving technology, and others. Underestimating risk can lead to costly repairs and reconstruction, while overestimating risk can lead to wasted resources. Asset owners require better techniques for assessing and managing risk. Approaches to managing risk range from qualitative assessments of likelihood and consequence at the enterprise level to quantitative, probabilistic approaches at the network and program levels such as scenario analysis, simulation, and other approaches to predictive modeling. Successful organizations, across both the public and private sectors, effectively and efficiently quantify the effects of risk and uncertainty related to threats and opportunities. The objectives of this research project are to (1) Develop enhanced techniques to consider and evaluate asset management-related risks as part of investment decision-making practices, including qualitative, quantitative, and analytical methods—building on and aligning with previous and continuing research efforts in the areas of TAM and risk management; (2) Review effective processes to determine how existing and potential approaches can be used when integrating enterprise, network, and program level risk analysis. Alternative approaches should address how state departments of transportation (DOTs) make multi-objective, cross-asset investment decisions under uncertainty to best support national, state, and local asset performance goals for pavements, bridges, and other assets; (3) Develop strategies and procedures for risk mitigation and response with applicable tools and tracking mechanisms for transportation agencies to improve risk assessment in existing and evolving asset management business processes; and (4) Develop implementation guidance, including practical tools and techniques for incorporating risk and uncertainty, as well as possible measures of asset resilience that can be integrated into risk assessment procedures in support of national, state, and local asset performance goals.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=4556

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $600000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 08-118

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Project Managers:

  Weeks, Jennifer

• Performing Organizations:

  StarIsis

  Lewis Center, OH  United States 
• Principal Investigators:

  Varma, Shobna

• Start Date: 20190509
• Expected Completion Date: 20210623
• Actual Completion Date: 20210623

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asset management; Best practices; Climate; Climate change; Disaster resilience; Guidelines; Risk assessment; Transportation departments; Transportation planning; Uncertainty; Weather conditions
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01672243
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 08-118
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Jun 18 2018 7:54PM