Assessing the Impact of Strategic-Level Pavement Management Decisions

Dealing with inadequate funding to finance all the needs of a public agency is a commonplace issue for many decision makers. What are not uniform, however, are the actions that result from the decision-making processes agencies must undergo. On a daily basis, decision makers have to make strategic decisions to balance their budget but they often do not possess the necessary data or tools to make informed choices. As money continues to be cut from pavement assets in many agencies, those that have pavement performance data and decision support tools can provide the information needed to support the decisions that must be made. But the practitioners must communicate with decision makers about the capabilities of the tools and present the information in meaningful terms. Based upon the results of several pavement management assessment studies, several case studies from both local and state transportation agencies are presented in which pavement management data and concepts were used to convey the impact of strategic decisions to the agency decision makers and stakeholders, all with varying outcomes. Also, the case studies highlight how pavement management assessment studies can shape strategic-level organizational and policy decisions