BACKGROUND: State highway agency equipment fleet assets are vital to the delivery of agency programs, projects, and services. These fleets represent a significant capital investment and require recurring maintenance, operational expenditures, and timely replacement to achieve the desired level of performance, reliability, and economy. A variety of practices have been used by highway agencies for making investment decisions for highway operation equipment. However, there is no widely accepted process for determining the long-range needs and budgets.

There is a need to identify current practices, review relevant information, and develop rational processes that will provide a realistic means for making investment decisions. A guide for formulating the long-range plans for replacement needs and budgets of highway operations equipment can then be prepared to facilitate use of these processes. Such a guide will help highway equipment managers and administrators in making decisions regarding replacement needs and budgets. NCHRP Project 13-04 developed a "Guide for Optimal Replacement Cycles of Highway Operations Equipment" (NCHRP Research Report 879:  Optimal Replacement Cycles of Highway Operations Equipment). The guide includes processes and tools for consideration in making decisions regarding the optimal replacement cycles of on- and off-road highway operations equipment used by state highway agencies, and can be useful for this research.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research is to develop a guide for the formulation of long-range plans for replacement needs and budget of highway operations equipment.  The guide shall include processes and tools for consideration in making investment decisions.  For the purpose of this research, long-range is defined as 20-25 years.

STATUS: Research on Phase I is complete. This research reviewed some of the issues related to the formulation of long-range plans for replacement needs and budget of highway operations equipment and proposed a preliminary research plan for developing related guidance. This information is available at

 https://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/docs/NCHRP13-06_RevisedInterimReport.pdf

Further research will be performed under NCHRP Project 13-06A