This report presents a logic framework for allocating limited highway asset preservation funds among competing demands to achieve high levels of system performance. The report also presents a spreadsheet-based computational tool that implements the framework. The tool uses linear programming optimization to allocate resources across asset classes or geographic regions, subject to constraints that typically must be considered in such decisionmaking, to achieve target asset performance or condition levels. Prototypical application scenarios and case-study examples illustrate how transportation agency staff may use the framework to assist resource allocation decisionmaking.

The objectives of this study were to gather information on asset management practices in the United States and overseas, develop a framework for transportation asset management, and apply this framework to produce the "Transportation Asset Management Guide." Phase I of the study encompassed information gathering, framework development, and recommendation of a research program. The products of Phase I have been issued in three separate volumes. This report constitutes the second volume, addressing a comprehensive transportation asset management framework. This framework defines transportation asset management within the context of this study, and establishes its basic concepts and elements. Its management approach is built on the idea that an agency's processes for resource allocation and utilization are at the core of asset management. Based on this concept, the report builds a framework for agency self-evaluation of its current and desired practices. This framework identifies key characteristics and criteria of transportation asset management in four basic areas relating to resource allocation and utilization: policy goals and objectives, planning and programming, program delivery, and information and analysis. State-of-the-art practices illustrate each of these characteristics and criteria to provide benchmarks by which agencies may establish targets for incremental improvement and gauge progress toward these targets. The report also discusses strategies for updating legacy management systems and data to better support asset management, and examines the relationship between transportation asset management and recently adopted standards for financial reporting of transportation infrastructure assets.

The objectives of this study were to gather information on asset management practices in the United States and overseas, develop a framework for transportation asset management, and apply this framework to produce the "Transportation Asset Management Guide." Phase I of the study encompassed information gathering, framework development, and recommendation of a research program. The products of Phase I have been issued in three separate volumes. This report constitutes the first volume, providing a synthesis of current information and practices in asset management.