Risk Management and Data Needs: A State of the Practice Survey of State Highway Agencies

Abstract

Risk management analysis is one of the new requirements under MAP-21 that separates transportation asset management programs from business as usual for the state departments of transportation (DOTs). Based on this requirement, each agency will discuss the concept of risk and how it should be incorporated into its transportation asset management program as well as how it informs maintenance practices, asset replacement or rehabilitation, and emergency management and response planning. This will require an agency to provide a list of risk exposures and document its system-wide risk management strategy. This paper presents the results of a state of the practice survey of how agencies are developing their risk-based asset management plan and discusses recommendations for future research. The results show that state highway agencies are increasingly adapting the way they do business to include explicit considerations of risks. At the moment, this consideration of risk is not linked to data, and as a result most agencies do not have a data driven way of tracking risk and updating their risk exposures. The significance of the results highlights the need for further research on data driven risk management and to synthesize methodologies for integrating risk assessment into an agency’s decision-making process.

Using Resilience in Risk-Based Asset Management Plans

“…The guide defines risk management as ''the cultures, processes, and structures that are directed to the effective management of potential opportunities and threats.'' Other work explores the data needs to support risk management (19).…”

“…Building on these foundations, a guide for state departments of transportation provides detailed information about risk management in the context of asset management and performance management ( 18 ). The guide defines risk management as “the cultures, processes, and structures that are directed to the effective management of potential opportunities and threats.” Other work explores the data needs to support risk management ( 19 ).…”

Database Design and Integration Framework for Risk Management for State Highway Agencies

“…In 2017, a national scan was undertaken on the state of the practice of risk management implementation among state highway agencies (SHA), which found that the number of agencies that have risk registers at the enterprise, program and project levels had almost doubled (3). A review of the TAMP documents that have been uploaded to the AASHTO TAM portal by various state DOTs show that most agencies have similar methodologies for risk management.…”

“…It involves setting up a risk task force that typically consists of data owners, data managers, program managers (bridge, pavement, safety, etc. ), and an asset management committee whose task is to develop and implement the department's TAMP to ensure it satisfies Federal requirements, coordinate asset management activities across all department bureaus and divisions, and facilitate progress toward improving asset conditions, inventories and data sharing capabilities (3). The task force therefore represents all the relevant stakeholders involved in risk management decision making.…”

“…This consultative process did not allude to any development of datasets on various risk events, processes, and measures to be able to quantify or track risk. In addition, the 2017 study on the state of the practice for integrating risk management in SHAs found that the majority of agencies did not identify data needs along with the risk identification process and as a result were unable to agree on frequency and process for tracking identified risks (3).…”