MTC News: Year Four (2003) Progress Report

Research relating to transportation asset management

The RFP Process

Research projects were sought from throughout the MTC region using a Request for Proposal (RFP) process that took place in late winter each year. The definition of asset management used evaluating research proposals is stated as follows:

“Asset management is a systematic process of maintaining, upgrading, and operating physical assets cost-effectively. It combines engineering principles with sound business practices and economic theory, and it provides tools to facilitate a more organized, logical approach to decision-making. Thus, asset management provides a framework for handling both short- and long-range planning.”

This definition was extended to both fixed and rolling assets and included policies and techniques for managing assets related to highways, bridges, public transportation, railroads, trucking, passenger aviation, airfreight, inland water transportation, and ocean shipping. The RFP process follows:

1. The MTC distributes a request for 2-page concept papers (prospectus).
2. Prospectuses are distributed to external reviewers for evaluation.
3. Full proposals are requested based on the peer review.
4. The research program committee reviews and ranks full proposals for funding.
5. Selected projects are awarded and contracted.

Only prospectuses that met UTC grant program requirements and addressed topics directly related to the asset management theme were considered for development into full research proposals. The following factors are also used to evaluate proposals:

• Relevance to asset management
• Clarity of the objectives and methods for addressing transportation issues
• Relevance to existing research (research that leverages or extends other research projects was encouraged)
• Originality of the proposed research
• Interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the research
• Potential for implementation and short-term technology transfer in member universities
• Sources and extent of matching funds and practitioner involvement
• Project size and duration (projects of $80,000 or more were encouraged, but projects could not be more than two years long)

Research Project Summaries

Projects awarded by the MTC for Year 4:

MTC-2003-01: User Benefits of Winter Maintenance—Intercity Traffic During Winter Storms (Tom Maze, Iowa State University)

The objective of this project is to better quantify the logistics costs of reducing level of service and closure of intercity highway routes because of winter weather. It will also determine safety implications and traffic pattern changes due to weather-induced road closures, and if feasible, identify measures of user cost due to winter storm-induced road closures and severe winter storms. Winter storm maintenance is generally understood to be beneficial; however, there is little analytical information upon which to base trade-offs between winter maintenance investments and other transportation investments. For example, winter maintenance is generally considered to provide substantial traffic safety benefits, still, there are no known methodologies to compare the trade-offs between investing to improve operational level of service during severe winter weather versus investing in improved roadside safety devices. The focus of this project is to research and document the benefits of winter storm maintenance on intercity routes moving significant commercial traffic. Completion is scheduled for April 2004.

MTC-2003-02: Roadway Alignments as Assets: Evaluating Alternatives for Valuing Major Highway Corridor Rights of Way (Dave Plazak, Iowa State University)

The objectives of this project are to explore alternative means of valuing right-of-way. Alternatives could include book (original) value, current market value, replacement value, and valuation based upon the benefits that the right-of-way provides to motorists. The goal is to understand what these different approaches to valuation imply and to determine which one presents the best picture of the value of the assembled right-of-way. A secondary objective is to develop a valuation of the cost of allowing additional access points along the corridor.

According to the FHWA, there are almost 4 billion linear miles of roads and streets in the United States, 3 billion of which are publicly managed. If one assumes an average of 40 feet for right-of-way width, this means there are around 625 billion square feet of public roadway rights-of-way with a potential book valuation of about $3.5 trillion, or $70 billion in an average-sized state. A series of shortsighted decisions about direct accesses, traffic signals, median breaks, or adjacent land development could significantly diminish the value of such assets. The research approach will involve using available data from real estate assessment databases, Iowa DOT records, and highway benefit-cost models to develop alternative valuations for the corridor. Completion is scheduled for December 2003.

MTC-2003-03: A Web-Based Implementation of Winter Maintenance Decision Support System (WMDSS) Using GIS and Remote Sensing (Ramanathan Suguarman, University of Northern Iowa)

The objective of this project is to implement a web-based winter maintenance decision support system that improves the ability of stakeholders to evaluate different procedures to optimally manage assets for snow removal. This will be accomplished by integrating geo-spatial analytical techniques, snow removal asset management system (SRAMS) developed with support from the MTC, and spatial decision support systems.

Winter maintenance, particularly snow removal and the stress of snow removal materials on public structures, is an enormous budgetary burden on municipalities and non-governmental maintenance organizations in cold climates. Lately, geo-spatial technologies, chiefly involving the use of GIS as for mapping and route-generation, are providing a valuable tool for planning snow removal operations; however, most are not typically placed in the hands of planners and other interested stakeholders, are not constructed with a non-technical user in mind, and lack an accessible, easily understood interface. The proposed project will improve the existing SRAMS and its implementation in various ways. Completion is scheduled for April 2004.