ASSET MANAGMENT

Asset management is a systematic process of maintaining, upgrading, and operating physical assets cost-effectively. It is an emerging concept in the transportation industry that has been used for years by utilities to manage networks by optimizing preservation, upgrades, and replacement of assets through effective programming and resource allocation. It involves collecting data about existing physical resources and managing conditions based on strategic goals. It is a systematic process of inventory, scenario evaluation, and action that results, ideally, in selecting the best method of implementation to achieve specified goals and objectives.

Each year between the months of May and November, a rating team drives the federal-aid eligible paved roads in each county in the Eastern U.P. This team is comprised of an MDOT representative (Newberry TSC), a representative from the EUPRPDC, and a representative from the local road agency (County Road Commission/City Engineering). Three data items are collected using the RoadSoft GIS software: Surface type, number of lanes, and the PASER (see below). This data is then sent to the Michigan Center for Shared Solutions (CSS) and the Transportation Asset Management Council (TAMC) to be used in the State of Michigan’s assessment of federal-aid paved roads throughout the State. The TAMC releases a yearly report summarizing the Asset Management Program and the ratings.

View Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council’s Statewide PASER Maps