AASHTO

Transportation

Asset Management Guide

A Focus on Implementation
What

Is the Transportation Asset Management Guide?

AASHTO Transportation Asset Management Guide—

A Focus on Implementation is a new publication from 

the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) National 

Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP). 

It aims to help transportation agencies address 

strategic questions they confront in managing 

the surface transportation system.

Drawn from both national and international knowledge and experience, it provides guidance to State 

Department of Transportation (DOT) executives, 

as well as county and municipal transportation 

agencies, to assist them in realizing the most from 

financial resources now and in the future, preserving 

highway assets, and providing the service expected 

by customers. Divided into two key parts, Part One 

of the guide focuses on leadership and goal and 

objective setting, whereas Part Two is more 

technical guidance.
Implementing Asset Management

This latest volume of the AASHTO Transportation Asset 

Management Guide provides guidance for implementing 

asset management concepts, principles, performance 

targets, strategies, tools, analysis methods, data collection, and application of management system information. 

To assist in the implementation of Transportation Asset 

Management (TAM), the new guide includes examples of 

tools for evaluating return on investment and improving 

economic efficiency, resource allocation, and budgeting 

decisions. It also includes examples of strategies for 

enhancing communication and information-sharing 

among decisionmakers and elected officials. Finally, 

it provides examples of ways that Enterprise Resource 

Planning systems can effectively support TAM.

What Is Transportation Asset Management?

The definition according to the American Association of 

State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO’s) 

Subcommittee on Asset Management is: 

“Transportation Asset Management is a strategic and 

systematic process of operating, maintaining, upgrading 

and expanding physical assets effectively throughout their 

lifecycle. It focuses on business and engineering practices 

for resource allocation and utilization, with the objective 

of better decisionmaking based upon quality information 

and well-defined objectives.” 

“

This guide provides practitioners and de

to implement a transportation asset management 

support a larger performance management progr
ecisionmakers with a hands-on document 

t approach for their organization that will 

ram.” —Kirk Steudle, Director, Michigan DOT

TAM is a business model, a decision support system, 

and a management approach that can be used across 

an agency to address five core questions:

» What is the current state of physical assets?

» What are the required levels of service and 

performance delivery?

» Which assets are critical to sustained performance?

» What are the best investment strategies for 

operations, maintenance, replacements, and 

improvement?

» What is the best long-term funding strategy?

The goal of a TAM program is to minimize the life-cycle 

costs for managing and maintaining transportation 

assets, including roads, bridges, tunnels, rails, and 

roadside features. It is important for a TAM program 

to support a strategic resource allocation process that

uses a performance-based approach to maintain and 

preserve physical assets. 

Through the use of management systems, engineering 

and economic analysis, and other tools, transportation 

agencies can evaluate collected data before making 

decisions on how specific resources should be deployed. 

This assists in the many accountability, resources, and 

preservation challenges and expectations faced on 

a daily basis. 

An asset management approach can lessen long-term 

costs and improve credibility of the decisionmaking 

process by being objective and technically based.
What Are the Steps to TAM Implementation?

Successful TAM implementation requires good management, effective leadership, and the right organizational 

culture. The key to TAM implementation is to meet 

a required level of service, in the most cost-effective 

manner, through the management of assets for present 

and future customers. This is done in a sequence of 

management steps—from setting direction, creating 

alignment, and developing the plan, to strengthening 

processes, systems, and data.

The guide explores 14 steps to TAM implementation:

1. Set agency goals and objectives.

2. Conduct self-assessment and TAM gap analysis.

3. Define the scope of TAM.

4. Develop the change strategy.

5. Integrate TAM into the organizational culture.

6. Integrate TAM into business processes.

7. Establish asset management roles.

8. Establish performance management standards.

9. Develop a TAM plan.

10. Strengthen enabling processes—service planning.

11. Strengthen enabling processes—life-cycle 

management.

12. Strengthen enabling processes—TAM integration.

13. Strengthen information systems.

14. Strengthen data.

continued on back »
Publication No. FHWA-HIF-10-023

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides highquality information to serve Government, industry, and the 

public in a manner that promotes public understanding. 

Standards and policies are used to ensure and maximize the 

quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of its information. 

FHWA periodically reviews quality issues and adjusts its programs 

and processes to ensure continuous quality improvement.

The Path Toward TAM

The path toward best practice TAM will always look 

different in each agency on the basis of its history, 

political and physical environment, responsibilities, 

culture, and organizational constraints.

The new guide puts all TAM components in 

one place, from tools, plans, and techniques, 

to examples and ideas for enhancing TAM. 

Implementing TAM is incremental and continuous, 

but with this guide, transportation executives can 

focus on specific tasks and plot a course to obtaining a level of TAM practice that is just right for 

their agency.

Contacts

For more information and to view the 

AASHTO Transportation Asset Management Guide, 

visit www.assetmanagement.transportation.org, 

or contact Steve Gaj in FHWA’s Office of Asset 

Management, 202-366-1336 (email: stephen.

gaj@dot.gov).