Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-07-012
Date: April 2007

Conference To Spotlight New Directions in Asset Management

"New Directions in Asset Management and Economic Analysis" will be the theme at the Seventh National Conference on Transportation Asset Management, to be held November 6-8, 2007, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Building on the success of the six previous national conferences and the progress made across the country in the implementation of asset management practices, this year's event will look at such issues as organizational leadership, management systems, and training and education.

"The conference will provide a forum for practitioners, researchers, and others to share information on a range of issues related to transportation asset management," says conference co-chair Francine Shaw-Whitson of the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Office of Asset Management.

The conference will feature three thematic tracks:

Integration of Maintenance and Operations into Transportation Asset Management -One of the greatest challenges that the transportation community currently faces is the need to adequately rehabilitate, maintain, operate, and manage the large stock of infrastructure facilities now in place. Presentations will detail asset management approaches that have been implemented in the areas of maintenance decisionmaking, pavement and bridge preservation, and winter maintenance programs, among others.

Putting Economics into Practice -This track will focus on best practices for using economic methods in public agency decisionmaking. It will include panels on "Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Assessing Benefits," "Weighing Tradeoffs-Comparisons Across Assets," and "Risk Assessment and Analysis in Decisionmaking." Prior training in economic analysis is not required.

Transportation Asset Management in the Ports and Harbors Community -Many U.S. ports are more than 50 years old and, as with other infrastructure systems, are showing the need for redevelopment, routine and restorative maintenance, or expansion, while also facing significant challenges in financing additional infrastructure. These challenges have led the ports community to explore asset management strategies. Presentations in this track will address port maintenance management systems; inspection, rehabilitation, and replacement techniques specific to port infrastructure; and emerging asset management tools and techniques.

Within each of the three tracks, special topic areas that will receive emphasis are:

• Asset management to support public-private partnerships.
• Valuation of assets.
• Asset management partnerships among multiple agencies and owners.
• Risk assessment and analysis in decisionmaking.

The event is sponsored by the Transportation Research Board's (TRB) Committees on Transportation Asset Management and Transportation Economics, with support from FHWA's Office of Asset Management. Additional sponsors include the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, American Public Works Association, Midwest Regional University Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, National Association of County Engineers, and the National Local Technical Assistance Program Association.

For more information on the 2007 conference, contact David Floyd at TRB, 202-334-2966 (email: dfloyd@nas.edu), or Francine Shaw-Whitson at FHWA, 202-366-8028 (email: francine.shaw-whitson@fhwa.dot.gov).

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