Linking asset management to strategic planning processes - Best practices from state departments of transportation

The research described in this paper assembles a set of tools on the basis of experiences and best practices in a diverse set of states for linking strategic goals to resource allocation and implementation decisions using aspects of asset management. A survey of practices in each of the state DOTs explored documents and synthesized both strategic planning processes and asset management. With input from an expert advisory panel, five states were the subjects of detailed analysis: Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, and Pennsylvania. Each of the states was visited by a project team that spent 2 days on-site. Information on the strategic planning and asset management process was obtained through personal interviews with DOT officials and the acquisition of materials describing these processes. Based on detailed documentation of the practices in each of these states, a synthesis of best practices of the linkage between asset management and strategic planning was developed. The resulting model process does not represent any particular state, but incorporates elements from all five states. This synthesis can provide useful guidance to states interested in augmenting their existing processes.