Incorporating Maintenance Costs into Your TAMP
NCHRP's "A Guide to Incorporating Maintenance Costs into a Transportation Asset Management Plan" offers transportation professionals a six-part framework designed to tackle the biggest challenges agencies face in projecting future maintenance costs in Transportation Asset Management Plan (TAMP) activities.
Under current legislation, state DOTs must develop a risk-based TAMP for pavements and bridges located on the National Highway System (NHS), that at a minimum include:
- A summary of the pavement & bridge assets on the NHS
- Asset management objectives & performance measures
- The identification of any performance gaps
- Life-cycle cost & risk management analysis
- A 10-year financial plan w/ corresponding investment strategies
State DOTs have been required to develop risk-based TAMPs since 2018, however the absence of maintenance cost data has prevented agencies from fully capturing the total investment made to preserve and improve highway infrastructure assets.To date, several DOTs have described challenges in showing clear connections between maintenance investments and asset condition.
This guide has been specifically developed to support state DOTs in their efforts to better incorporate maintenance costs into their risk-based TAMPs.
Supplemental to this report is NCHRP's web-only document "Incorporating Maintenance Costs into a Transportation Asset Management Plan", which presents research conducted to develop a framework that state DOTs and other transportation agencies can use to incorporate maintenance costs into their TAMP.
Transportation Asset Management Plan
TAMPs are an essential management tool which bring together all related business processes and stakeholders, internal and external, to achieve a common understanding and commitment to improve performance.
It's a tactical document that focuses analysis, options development, programs, delivery mechanisms, and reporting mechanisms on ensuring strategic objectives are achieved.
Each state is required to develop a risk-based asset management plan for the National Highway System to improve or preserve the condition of the assets and performance of the system.
