Culvert Information Management System

A pilot scale culvert information management system (CIMS) was developed for the New Jersey Department of Transportation to comply with requirements stipulated by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, GASB-34, and new federal stormwater regulations. The condition states of culverts are used to express the extent of their deterioration and survival probabilities. A financial analysis model was developed on the basis of the remaining value of culverts and the user cost of failures. Different rehabilitation options were discussed, and recommendations were made for deteriorated culverts on the basis of financial analysis. The pilot CIMS can analyze prescribed culvert information and make decisions to inspect, rehabilitate, or replace culverts or to do nothing at project and network levels. At the project level, this is achieved by comparing inspection, rehabilitation, or replacement costs with risks and costs associated with failure. At the network level, the associated costs are optimized to meet annual maintenance budget allocations by prioritizing culverts needing inspection and rehabilitation or replacement. The CIMS has three major computer software components: databases, user interfaces, and functionality modules. Modules include inlet-outlet structures, culvert segments, culvert assessment, and optimization. Users are able to retrieve culvert and inlet-outlet structure physical and financial information and to generate reports vis-A-vis location, road, and milepost for condition state and assets needing immediate repair. The CIMS will also do the following operations: maintain an up-to-date inventory of eligible infrastructure assets; perform maintenance of eligible infrastructure assets for a given budget using a replicable basis of measurement and measurement scale; and summarize results, noting any factors that may influence trends in the information reported.