Asset Management and Safety: A Performance Perspective

Project Details
STATUS

Completed

START DATE

09/01/09

END DATE

03/31/11

FOCUS AREAS

Infrastructure, Safety

RESEARCH CENTERS InTrans, CTRE, MTC
SPONSORS

Midwest Transportation Consortium

Researchers
Principal Investigator
Omar Smadi

Director, CTRE

Co-Principal Investigator
Konstantina Gkritza
Co-Principal Investigator
Neal Hawkins

Associate Director, InTrans

Co-Principal Investigator
Başak Aldemir Bektaş

About the research

Incorporating safety performance measures into asset management can assist transportation agencies in managing their aging assets efficiently and improve system-wide safety. Past research has revealed the relationship between individual asset performance and safety, but the relationship between combined measures of operational asset condition and safety performance has not been explored.

This project investigates the effect of pavement marking retroreflectivity and pavement condition on safety in a multi-objective manner. Data on one-mile segments for all Iowa primary roads from 2004 through 2009 were collected from the Iowa Department of Transportation and integrated using linear referencing.

An asset condition index (ACI) was estimated for the road segments by scoring and weighting individual components.

Statistical models were then developed to estimate the relationship between ACI and expected number of crashes, while accounting for exposure (average daily traffic).

Finally, the researchers evaluated alternative treatment strategies for pavements and pavement markings using benefit-cost ratio analysis, taking into account corresponding treatment costs and safety benefits in terms of crash reduction (number of crashes proportionate to crash severity).


Funding Sources:
Midwest Transportation Consortium ($100,000.00)
Total: $100,000.00

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