Has your organization completed the federally mandated, MAP-21 required Risk-based, Transportation Asset Management Plan (TAMP)? There are still many state DOTs which have not completed these plans. For some the daunting task of developing such a plan is hampered by the fact that the initial questions which need to be answered to begin have sometimes not even be contemplated.

• What is the current state of your assets?
• What is the Level of Service desired/necessary to maintain or achieve acceptable performance?
• What/where are my critical assets?
• What are the best strategies to employ for Operations and Maintenance and Capital Investments?
• Where is the funding coming from to implement this plan?

There are examples available through FHWA of states’ plans:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/asset/plans.cfm

Key to these plans in addition to knowing what you have, where it is and in what condition it is, is understanding the likelihood and consequence of an asset’s failure. This is the risk component of the asset management plan – in other words, the ‘tree in the woods’ scenario. If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there, who cares? Likewise if an asset fails with little or no impact to system performance, the environment or safety, where is it on the prioritized list for funding or attention? More to the point, where are the critical assets that if they failed would catastrophically affect safety and/or performance?!?!

DTS stands alone in the transportation industry as the ONLY firm that understands and has experience with the full cycle of asset management, from data collection, feature extraction and condition assessment to planning, work management and operations and maintenance. Others collect data, while some offer software systems, but DTS alone has the necessary expertise and experience to support your agency through the entire process.