http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/202 The Midwest Regional University Transportation Center (MRUTC) focuses on research, outreach, and education in asset optimization and management http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6991 Development of a guide to statistics for maintenance quality assurance programs in transportation Schmitt, Robert L. Owusu-Ababio, Samuel Weed, Richard M. Nordheim, Erik V. This report provides maintenance managers and practitioners with knowledge of how to apply statistics in MQA programs. Literature were reviewed and MQA manuals from 10 states were synthesized to understand state-of-practice for managing statistics in MQA programs. It was observed among lead states that a wide range of measured elements and threshold definitions exist for roadway, roadside and vegetation, drainage, traffic control, and rest areas. The role of statistics in MQA was described, and key statistical terms were defined. Actual MQA data were collected and analyzed to illustrate how fundamental statistical procedures and applications to describe features of MQA data. Examples were demonstrated for basic summary statistics, confidence intervals, data stratification, analysis of variance, sample size determination, precision, sensitivity analysis, and power level of statistics when evaluating the QA process itself. A new ranking procedure was developed that applies the concepts of percent defective (PD) or percent within limits (PWL), and computes confidence limits for the statewide system or any strata (functional class, division, county, or 10-mile roadway segment), and then ordering them by their lower confidence limits. If those limits do not include the desired level of the particular measure, then that particular section of pavement would be considered noncompliant. 115 p. (Final report and appendices A and B); [28] p. (Appendix C); [28] p. (Appendix D) Wed, 29 Mar 2006 22:58:59 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6989 Upper Midwest Freight Corridor Study Adams, Teresa M. Gordon, Travis J. Wittwer, Ernie F. Gupta, Jiwan Lindquist, Peter Vonderembse, Mark Kawamura, Kazuya McNeil, Sue Bittner, Jason This study was undertaken in order to establish a regional approach to improving freight transportation through the Upper Midwest corridor. Improving freight flows through the region can improve reliability and enhance competitiveness. This study examines several aspects of regional freight transportation including, capacity, performance measures, administrative issues, demand/usage and best practices. The project was funded by, six states in the region, through their Departments of Transportation, have contributed to a pooled fund to finance the majority of the work. These states include Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. 233 p. Wed, 30 Mar 2005 22:58:59 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6987 Documenting training opportunities related to transportation asset management Ebeling, Mary R. Bittner, Jason Wittwer, Ernie F. Adams, Teresa M. Many public agencies are now seeking training in the concepts, tools and processes of Transportation Asset Management. Some are creating their own training materials. Some are relying on vendors. Others rely on public providers such as Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) centers. While efforts to create Asset Management training have resulted in greater availability and variety of training opportunities, the lack of coordination between groups providing these courses can lead to a lack of accessibility. To date no comprehensive inventory has been done of available training. This study represents the first attempt at such an inventory. Since no registry of Asset Management training exists, the project relied heavily on an advisory group of transportation professionals who are close to Asset Management activities. The group made valuable suggestions on agencies, institutions, and vendors to include in the survey, and often provided information on courses not available on the internet. The project is divided into two primary parts; Asset Management courses available to practitioners of transportation for professional development and for-credit course offerings available at universities. For the purposes of this study professional development courses were defined broadly, and include the traditional half-day, single-day, and multi-day seminars as well as web-based seminars, on-line courses, and teleconference-based classes. The second part of this study involved identifying Asset Management courses available for credit through universities. These courses are also documented in this report. The course directory is available on the web at http://www.mrutc.org/tam_training/. 48 p. Wed, 28 Sep 2005 22:58:59 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6966 System management and monitoring : temporal evaluation of freeway management systems Coifman, Benjamin Redmill, Keith Merry, Carolyn Virtually every major metropolitan area in the US has a traffic monitoring system to help increase traffic throughput, decrease the number of accidents, decrease the time required to clear incidents that disrupt flow, and provide travelers information. Almost all of these systems are myopic, focusing strictly on current conditions. Yet the data collected by the sensors can provide considerable information when viewed over time. The goal of this study is to investigate and demonstrate several applications that employ traffic monitoring system data over time to show the added benefit of the given system. Many of these tools have been demonstrated in real time using data from the Columbus Metropolitan Freeway Management System (CMFMS), the intelligent freeway management system in the greater Columbus, Ohio area. 33 p. Sat, 29 Jan 2005 22:58:59 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6964 GIS tool to measure performance of winter highway operations Vonderohe, Alan Blazquez, Carola Brezovar, Nick Hong, Sungchul Lauters, Jason Adams, Teresa M. A five-year research effort (fifth-year funding through MRUTC) culminated in development, implementation, and installation of a GIS application for assessing performance of winter highway applications. The software accepts data recorded on board winter maintenance vehicles during operations and combines it with spatial data representing roadways and vehicle patrol sections. Analysts can then select among a number of performance measures and decision management tools for outputs from the system. Outputs are categorized according to labor, equipment, materials, and map displays that indicate vehicle routes and data collected along the way. The software, full user documentation, and necessary spatial databases were installed in two Wisconsin county highway department offices and at Wisconsin DOT headquarters. Training was provided to staff. The spatial databases were developed, and scrutinized for quality, by the research team from data provided by the counties. FGDC-standard metadata were included with the spatial databases. Documentation of the full system included internal and external technical documentation for the software. Final development of the application required refinement of performance measures, decision management tools, and the user interface. A number of previously unsolved technical problems also needed to be addressed. These included the "map-matching" problem in which moving vehicles must be tracked by roadway and patrol section by registering strings of two-dimensional vehicle coordinates to digital maps (spatial databases). The problem is exacerbated by errors in the coordinates and in the maps. A decision-rule algorithm was developed and tested against a number of available data sets. The algorithm resolves nearly all ambiguities encountered in the data. This algorithm is embedded in the installed version of the software. Testing revealed the limit (1:24,000) on source-scale of the spatial databases, needed to support the application. Future maintenance of both the software and the data raise technical and institutional issues that were identified and described by the research team. Recommendations concerning these issues are included in the final sections of this report. 51 p. Sat, 29 Jul 2006 22:58:59 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6962 Transportation asset management for local government agencies : threshold levels and best practice guide Bernardin, Vincent Jr. Durango-Cohen, Pablo Czepiel, Edward The Federal Highway Administration defines transportation asset management as "a systematic process of operating, maintaining, and upgrading infrastructure cost-effectively." The objective of this report is to help county and municipal-level agencies implement transportation asset management techniques. The report represents a synthesis of the current literature on asset management relevant to local governments as well as a significant contribution to the subject. The report represents an important reference and resource for local government agencies and functions as a synthesis by (1) reviewing and re-presenting the concepts, strategies and tools of asset management, (2) identifying other important transportation asset management references and resources for local agencies, and (3) documenting the successful implementation of asset management techniques by local governments. The report makes important new contributions to the field by (4) identifying strategies, such as coordinated maintenance and group purchasing, particularly important for asset management at the local level, (5) reviewing commercially available software tools, (6) recommending standards of practice for agencies of various sizes, and (7) identifying future work important to advancing the state of the practice of asset management at the local government level. The report was based upon an extensive review of both the academic and professional literature, including online/web resources; a review and metaanalysis of surveys of local agencies on the topic of transportation asset management supplemented by a new, limited survey; a survey of software vendors providing asset management software to county and municipal governments; and the input of practitioners and experts in the field. 125 p. Fri, 28 Apr 2006 22:58:59 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6958 Business and site specific trip generation methodology for truck trips Kawamura, Kazuya Shin, Hyeon-Shic McNeil, Sue Ogard, Libby The motivation for this research comes from the recognition that recent developments in supply chain management (SCM) have altered the mechanism of truck trip generation at the individual facility level. This research develops models of truck trip generation (TTG) at the disaggregate level that incorporate strategic supply chain decisions made by individual businesses. The main assumption is that the TTG is an outcome of a series of strategic and operational business decisions. The research team conducted a survey of national retail chains. The data sets obtained from two furniture chains were used to develop binary logit models. Empirical data, although limited, validated the potential of building a disaggregate TTG model at the individual store level. Inclusion of location and store type dummy variables almost always improved model's predictive power, often dramatically. The findings presented in this report also underscore various shortcomings of existing methods. We found that commonly used independent variables such as the store floor space or the number of employees are poor predictor of truck trip generation at retail stores. 109 p. (Final report); 23 p. (Presentation paper); 18 slides (Presentation slides) Mon, 29 Aug 2005 22:58:59 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6955 Maintenance quality assurance : synthesis of measures Adams, Teresa M. Smith, Janille Constrained budgets and reduced funding are causing state transportation agencies to re-evaluate spending and allocations for maintenance. Much attention is being placed on accounting for maintenance expenditures and justifying maintenance budgets. One approach is to relate highway maintenance to highway performance through maintenance quality assurance (MQA). MQA programs help decision-makers understand maintenance conditions, set priorities, and document the relationship between dollars spent and outcomes. There are guidelines available to assist in the creation of MQA programs, but no comprehensive resources on specific quantitative measures for maintenance quality. States that already have programs are interested in communication with others on how programs are used to improve expenditure decision and justify budgets. Additionally, states interested in establishing an MQA program want to know what measures to use and what others are doing. Two critical barriers for establishing and maturing MQA programs are the lack of a commonly understood set of terms for communication about MQA, and a lack of consensus on a set of commonly recognized maintenance features, characteristics and measures of maintenance performance. This report defines the essential terms necessary to discuss the concepts of highway maintenance quality assurance and presents a synthesis of the measures for maintenance quality assurance used by 26 state transportation agencies. It is expected that common terms and measures will enable agencies to better evaluate their own programs, the performance of their highways, improve communication among agencies and provide a basis for further development of MQA programs. 38 p. (Final report); 27 slides (Presentation slides) Fri, 29 Jul 2005 22:58:59 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6913 An Interactive Multiobjective Decision Support Framework for Transportation Investment Chowdhury, Mashrur Tan, Paulin William, Surekha This report presents a multiobjective decision framework to support the decision making process in transportation investment analysis. One important capability of the multiobjective decision framework is that it allows many intangible objectives that are difficult to express on an absolute numerical scale to be considered without the need to convert the units into monetary scale. The proposed multiobjective decision framework allows a decision maker to select a reduced number of alternatives from a larger number of all available alternatives while ensuring that the selected alternatives are the best possible options. This framework could also be used to generate decision options for optimal allocation of resources between competing projects. The proposed decision framework is based on three multiobjective analysis concepts: the Surrogate Worth Tradeoff method for continuous decision problems and the Multiattribute Utility and Minimum Tolerance methods for discrete decision problems. These concepts help decision makers choose among, prioritize, and generate the most feasible and optimal alternatives. The four case studies presented as appendices demonstrate the application of the proposed decision framework to real-world projects. Sun, 15 Dec 2002 14:48:15 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6911 Evaluation of Near-Transportation Private Sector Asset Managememt Practices McNeil, Sue Sriraj, P.S. Pal, Shaumik The focus of the transportation industry, both in the public and private sectors, has slowly been changing from construction and expansion to that of preservation because of various factors. The private sector industries have made strides in asset management that would be beneficial to the public sector. The purpose of this research is to identify private sector asset management principles and concepts that could form an integral part of any asset management program employed by state transportation agencies, public sector entities, and especially the state DOT’s. The core of this report consists of an overview of case studies in asset management in the private sector. Based on the synthesis of case studies “lessons learned” are identified. This analysis was completed by carefully examining the asset management practices of seven private sector companies in the infrastructure industry. Included are case studies from two railroads, two airlines, two energy companies and one shipping company. The case studies highlighted the need for communication, tools and education, and an information technology foundation from which asset management can be practiced effectively. Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:48:05 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6905 Long range deployment of ITS strategies : concept definition Horowitz, Alan J. Duarte, Juan Cross, Andrew This report deals with the issue of how ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) strategies and technologies should be implemented over a long period of time (e.g., 10 to 20 years). Many strategies can be identified that have long-range implications, and a few of these strategies are particularly relevant to deployments in the US Midwest. Described are eight classes of traffic engineering and transportation planning software that show at least some promise for forecasting the benefits of ITS deployments. Reviews are given for four exemplary packages so that an assessment can be made about the advantages and disadvantages of existing analytical tools. The state of the practice of strategic (short-range) ITS deployment is also reviewed. Information drawn from a variety of agency reports reveals that a unified procedure for strategic ITS planning can be developed and may be amended for long-range ITS planning. However, to properly amend strategic ITS planning for long-range deployments, it is necessary to have substantially upgraded analysis tools. This report recommends the development of a dynamic travel forecasting model (DTFM) for this purpose. A prototype DTFM is shown to be able to optimize the long-range deployment of incident management. Factors needing special consideration when performing long-range ITS deployments include (1) developing appropriate scenarios and alternatives; (2) establishing a good staging process; (3) optimizing the use of assets; (4) involving stakeholder input at the appropriate times in the process; (5) recognizing randomness in the traffic system; and (6) properly accounting for changing technology. 103 p. Thu, 27 Feb 2003 22:58:59 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6903 Evaluation of Transportation Organization Outsourcing: Decision Making Criteria for Outsourcing Opportunitites Eger, Robert J. Knudson, Deborah A. Marlowe, Justin Ogard, Libby This study has primarily two objectives. First, using a series of case studies and survey research, it provides a comprehensive overview of transportation outsourcing practices in a variety of public and private sector organizations. The results of these case studies show that public sector organizations, particularly state departments of transportation, identify many of the same costs, benefits, challenges, and risks associated with outsourcing as their private sector counterparts. In light of these findings, this study then translates the private sector’s extensive outsourcing experience into a “scorecard” designed to serve as a decision making tool for administrators to identify services that have the potential for successful outsourcing. Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:47:21 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6901 Synthesis of National Efforts in Transportation Asset Management Obermann, Bill Bittner, Jason Ernie, Wittwer In the Fall of 2001, the Midwest Regional University Transportation Center (University of Wisconsin, Madison) conducted a survey of national efforts in Transportation Asset Management. The organizations and efforts described herein are for illustrative purposes only and the survey was not intended to be comprehensive. The results show a wide breadth of interest and research in the area of transportation infrastructure management, which is generally not apparent to many who are new to this field. Therefore, the report is intended to target a general audience that is interested in Asset Management and how various organizations are approaching the concept. Transportation professionals, officials, and researchers who are relatively unfamiliar with this area of infrastructure management may find this report helpful by introducing them to various past and present efforts. Sun, 28 Apr 2002 22:58:59 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6897 Infrastructure Management Decision-Making with Condition Data Generated by Remote Sensors: A Time Series Framework Durango-Cohen, Pablo Tadepalli, Naveen Recent developments in remote sensing and communications technologies allow agencies to install sensors within infrastructure facilities, such as pavement segments and bridges in order to collect condition-related data in real-time. In theory, such data can be processed, analyzed and displayed on-line as a key component for maintenance, and repair decision-making. The reality facing public works agencies that have adopted these technologies is that vast amounts of data related to the structural and functional condition of infrastructure are accumulated, but not used to address management needs. The research presented herein, therefore, is to develop methodological tools to support the management of transportation infrastructure systems given recent developments in facility-condition data collection technologies. In particular, the objectives of this research study are to develop tools that will allow agencies to process and exploit the data to support IM\&R decision-making, and to provide a framework to evaluate different strategies for deploying sensing technologies. Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:46:52 GMT http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/6895 Evaluation of transportation organization outsourcing : decision making criteria for outsourcing opportunities Eger, Robert J. Knudson, Deborah A. Marlowe, Justin Ogard, Libby This study has primarily two objectives. First, using a series of case studies and survey research, it provides a comprehensive overview of transportation outsourcing practices in a variety of public and private sector organizations. The results of these case studies show that public sector organizations, particularly state departments of transportation, identify many of the same costs, benefits, challenges, and risks associated with outsourcing as their private sector counterparts. In light of these findings, this study then translates the private sector’s extensive outsourcing experience into a “scorecard” designed to serve as a decision making tool for administrators to identify services that have the potential for successful outsourcing. 88 p. Wed, 30 Oct 2002 22:58:59 GMT