Midwest Transportation Consortium annual progress report : October 2001.

PDFOrganization InfoAnnual reportsReportsAnnual reviewsReviewsDocumentsAnnualEducation and trainingEducationTrainingPlanningIowaMidwest Transportation ConsortiumMidwest Transportation ConsortiumUnited States. Dept. of Transportation. Office of Innovation, Research and EducationNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-PLANNING AND POLICYNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-EducationUS Transportation CollectionFrom the Director: Transportation assets are tremendously important from the perspective the performance of our national,state, and regional economies. Few people comprehend the great impact it has on the overall economy.Literally trillions of dollars in transportation assets have been put in place throughout the United States.They one of the key means by which the economy functions and is tied into the global economy.American households spend over $6,000 each every year on transportation, or about 18 cents of everydollar they spend. This is more than they spend on food utilities, health care, apparel, and education. Theonly thing Americans spend more on than transportation is housing, and the two are very close inmagnitude. What this means is that anything that improves the productivity of resources we spend ontransportation will have enormous potential to provide economic benefits to Americans. Improvingproductivity is what asset management systems are intended to do by helping us to make better-informeddecisions about what to build, rehabilitate, maintain, and operate.2002 appears to be the year that asset management systems and related techniques will gain widespreadacceptance and use. There are several reasons for this.\ue2\u20ac\ua2 Because of the slowdown in the national economy, state and local government transportationagencies are under tremendous budgetary pressure. Agencies that manage transportationinfrastructure must do more with less. The public demand for efficient transportation remainshigh. Asset management systems and related systems (e.g. pavement management and bridgemanagement systems) are helping agencies make the best possible use of their limited resourcesand make better decisions and tradeoffs.\ue2\u20ac\ua2 The tragic events of last September 11 have placed an additional burden on the transportationsector to provide improved security for transportation users and critical assets. Asset managementinventories have turned out to be exceedingly valuable in terms of developing security plans.Knowing what the most critical infrastructure assets are is the first step in providing a moresecure and sure transportation system.\ue2\u20ac\ua2 Implementation of the provisions of Government Accounting Standards Board Statement 34(\ue2\u20ac\u153GASB 34\ue2\u20ac?) begins in 2002. The largest government agencies (e.g. states and large cities andcounties) must begin prospective financial reporting of their infrastructure assets this year.Development of an asset management system is an approach that a number of state DOTs andlocal governments have selected to meet the GASB mandate.The Midwest Transportation Consortium (MTC) is supporting the development of asset managementsystems in transportation on a number of fronts. The MTC\ue2\u20ac\u2122s main education and human capital goalinvolves the development of new leaders for the transportation industry, particularly in our four-stateregion. Asset management concepts have been incorporated into a number of courses at the six MTCconsortium member schools. For example, the Spring Transportation Seminar offered within the regionvia Internet-based videoconferencing technology has been focused on asset management topics for thepast several years. A new focus on transportation security (unfortunately needed after September 11) isplanned for future years. More than 30 graduate students each year in five academic disciplines willcomplete their academic programs with an excellent understanding of the state of the practice oftransportation asset management. They will become new leaders in transportation, whether ingovernment, consulting, or academia.The MTC\ue2\u20ac\u2122s research program is ending its second year of operation and will be issuing its third requestfor research proposals in January 2002. One project, involving the integration of data collected with theassistance of global positioning systems (GPS) into asset management databases, has been published.Seven other projects, which mainly focus on developing tools and techniques that can assist in theadoption of asset management by state and local government highway and public transportation agencies,are in progress. About $400,000 in new research (including $200,000 in MTC funds and $200,000 inmatching funds) will be approved during the first half of 2002. The MTC\ue2\u20ac\u2122s long-term research goal is tobuild a portfolio of projects involving several million dollars in Federal and matching funding that willmake it easier for agencies and companies to implement asset management systems. One special area ofemphasis at Iowa State University is the use of remote sensing and other spatial data for assetmanagement. This effort effectively leverages Iowa State University\ue2\u20ac\u2122s roles as a UniversityTransportation Center (UTC) and as a member of the National Consortium on Remote Sensing inTransportation Infrastructure. The latter consortium is an effort to commercialize developments from thespace program and defense activities.The MTC also plays a role in terms of outreach and technology transfer activities related to assetmanagement and GASB34 in our region. During 2001, the MTC sponsored or co-sponsored severalworkshops related to access management and GASB34. One of these was the 4th Annual NationalTransportation Asset Management Workshop in Madison, Wisconsin. This workshop brought togetherseveral hundred participants from the federal, state, local, private, and academic sectors to shareinformation on asset management policy, goals, techniques, and data. MTC faculty, staff, and studentsfrom Iowa State University, the University of Missouri-Columbia, and the University of Missouri-KansasCity played key roles in planning, financing, and conducting the workshop. The strong attendance at theevent was a testament to interest in transportation asset management in that it was held immediately afterSeptember 11 and during a period when many states and the Federal government faced tight restrictionson travel. The program of the National Workshop had a strong MTC flavor, something that we are proudof as we end our second year of operation and begin our third.As transportation asset management moves into \ue2\u20ac\u153production mode\ue2\u20ac?, the Midwest TransportationConsortium strives to be of assistance at a regional and national level