Application of cost approach for pavement valuation and asset management

An application of the cost approach for valuing pavements is presented. Asset management for civil infrastructure has been increasingly promoted since the 1990s, following the Governmental Accounting Standards Board's infrastructure reporting requirement for state and local governments. There are several ongoing developments in the research, administration, and practice of transportation asset management related to incorporating asset valuation concepts and techniques into existing management systems. To contribute to ongoing developments in this area, a case study is developed to demonstrate an integration of the cost approach for asset valuation With an existing pavement management system and to discuss how the results are useful for asset management. The results demonstrate that the cost approach captures the relationship among pavement value, performance, and time and can be used to capture the added value of pavement maintenance activities. The results also show that the cost approach can be incorporated into various management systems and used as a common basis for evaluating investment trade-offs for different types of infrastructure in order to enhance the overall value of a mixed asset base. The results also indicate that the cost approach can provide a useful common basis and language for discussions among engineers, managers, and stakeholders and is a powerful concept for enhancing the planning and investment decision-making process. The results are potentially useful to agencies involved in upgrading their infrastructure management systems to incorporate asset valuation and to other researchers involved in developing and integrating useful approaches for infrastructure valuation in existing management systems.