Environmentally Influenced Risk and Sustainable Management of State Controlled Transportation Assets

Federal and state transportation agencies across the world face a multitude of challenges to effectively maintain cost-effective core maintenance programs for managing a safe, yet sustainable transportation assets' program. The decision-making process involves several risk factors, and the prioritization of these factors could considerably affect both the level of utilization of these assets, as well as short- and long-term management protocols and plans for these agencies. The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act requires each state Department of Transportation in the United States to have a risk-based asset management plan in place to preserve the condition of their assets and improve the performance of the National Highway System. Many transportation agencies lack the financial and human resources to achieve their targets, and therefore they may opt to make trade-offs, lower targets, and perhaps drop some important objectives. Trade-off decisions can become clearer when objectives and targets are viewed through the lens of which options reduce the top-priority risks, such as reduced risk to safety, asset performance, or future costs. This chapter primarily focuses on emphasizing the importance of risk management in transportation networks and demonstrating the relationship between environmentally influenced risk management and sustainable management of state-controlled transportation assets in the United States. Several key parameters including risk assessment, financial risk and organizational behavior are addressed. Successful examples demonstrating how transportation agencies have identified how to best address a given risk, and in turn impact the resource allocation process are provided.