System Preservation Needs

Transportation planning has traditionally emphasized the analysis of major capital investments involving new facilities or significant capacity increases. In recent years, however, transportation system management and system preservation improvements have received increasing attention. It is generally acknowledged now that the basic transportation systems are in place and that, as these facilities grow older and the costs of new major investments increase beyond affordable levels, the funding levels devoted to preserving and rehabilitating the existing transportation facilities will become a larger proportion of transportation agency budgets. The most important system preservation expenditure categories and the approach used to estimate needs by the Maryland Department of Transportation are described herein. In Maryland, the largest system preservation needs are highway resurfacing and bridge rehabilitation. The largest nonhighway system preservation needs are for bus replacement, representing about 10% of all system preservation needs for all modes. This type of analysis can be useful to transportation agencies in justifying proposals for revenue increases and in establishing a realistic level of expenditures for system preservation improvements to avoid further deterioration of existing facilities.