BACKGROUND

Determining the value of a transportation agency’s physical assets is important for financial reporting and transportation asset management (TAM). In financial reporting, determining asset value is a fundamental step in preparing a balance sheet for financial statements to inform regulators and investors. For TAM, presenting data on the value of physical assets, such as pavement, bridges, and facilities, communicates what an organization owns and what it must maintain. Furthermore, information about asset value and how it is changing can help establish how the organization is maintaining its asset inventory and helps support investment decisions.

Calculating asset value for TAM is not simply good practice; it is required of state departments of transportation (DOTs) by federal regulations. Title 23 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 515 details requirements for state DOTs to develop a risk-based transportation asset management plan (TAMP). The TAMP must include a calculation of the value of National Highway System (NHS) pavement and bridges, as well as the cost to maintain asset value. Several resources exist to assist states with this, including A Guide to Computation and Use of System Level Valuation of Transportation Assets, the AASHTO Transportation Asset Management Portal, the AASHTO Transportation Asset Management Guide, and FHWA’s Asset Management resources.

NCHRP Web-Only Document 335: A Guide to Computation and Use of System-Level Valuation of Transportation Assets (the asset valuation guide) (2022), details how to calculate asset value and use it to support application in TAM. This guide is intended as a companion publication to the AASHTO Transportation Asset Management Guide: A Focus on Implementation, second edition, and is accompanied by a web tool with an online version of the guidance. The guidance was developed to provide immediate support to highway and transit agencies developing their 2022 TAMPs, and to provide continuing support for other TAM-related applications.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this implementation project is to promote and support further use of the asset valuation guide through the development and dissemination of outreach materials that provides an overview of the guide, through case studies, and supplemental tools and worksheets. The results of this project will be added to the web-based version of the asset valuation guidance and subsequent versions of the asset valuation guide.