Dr. Omar Smadi to deliver talk: "Asset Management: a New Approach to Decision Making."

Join us for Dr. Omar Smadi's presentation on "Asset Management: a New Approach to Decision Making."

Dr. Smadi has over 20 years of experience in the area of infrastructure and asset management ranging from pavements, bridges, safety, pavement marking, signs and other infrastructure assets.  Dr. Smadi is an associate professor with the department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at Iowa State University.  Dr. Smadi is the Director of RIMOS (Roadway Information Management Information Systems) program at InTrans and also a research scientist with CTRE. He is currently serving as PI for several research projects for the Iowa Department of Transportation, the Iowa Highway Research Board, the federally funded Midwest Transportation Consortium (MTC), NCHRP, SHRP 2, and FHWA.  He chairs the TRB Committee on Pavement Monitoring and Evaluation and a member of the Pavement Management and Asset Management committees.  Dr. Smadi developed and taught the FHWA Data Integration workshop and NHI’s Asset Management class.  Dr. Smadi manages an annual data collection contract for pavement distress and video log for over 40,000 miles for the state of Iowa and cities and counties in the state. Dr. Smadi was in charge of developing, implementing, and populating the SHRP 2 Roadway Information Database (RID) which contains roadway data from multiple sources and covers over 200,000 miles.

Abstract: 

What is asset management? Why should agencies implement asset management? How much does it cost to implement asset management? What is included as part of the asset management implementation process? All these are questions that agencies have to answer before proceeding with a decision to implement AM. MAP-21 changed the dynamics for state DOTs since it mandated the development of risk-based asset management plan (TAMP) that utilizes life cycle cost to develop investment strategies for the preservation and improvement of the highways and bridges on the national highway system (NHS) at a minimum. MAP-21 defines asset management as: a strategic and systematic process of operating, maintaining, and improving physical assets, with a focus on engineering and economic analysis based upon quality information, to identify a structured sequence of maintenance, preservation, repair, rehabilitation, and replacement actions that will achieve and sustain a desired state of good repair over the lifecycle of the assets at minimum practicable cost.

The AM definition indicates that AM is more than just a system or software. It is a process, a new way of doing business for transportation agencies. The presentation will cover the basics of asset management covering concepts and core questions that asset management need to answer, need for data to support the asset management process and the quality assurance process, decision making utilizing life-cycle cost, performance measures under MAP-21, and risk and its impact on decision making. The presentation will also discuss the requirements of a transportation asset management plan (TAMP) and how it can be utilized to enhance the decision making process.