IT Infrastructure Problems for Asset Management

Transportation infrastructure asset management efforts normally focus on collecting data on items with low volumes and higher capital costs, such as bridges. Road signs and pavement markings, on the other hand, are high volume, low capital cost items but are critical elements of the transportation infrastructure. These high volume assets serve a critical function, safety, and thus they are receiving attention. In particular, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has been working to establish minimum retroreflectivity standards for signs and pavement markings. This paper seeks to address information technology (IT) problems that emerge when developing an overall asset management system for high volume assets and to identify their unique characteristics. These IT problems include asset identification, asset location, data availability, data fragmentation, automated data collection, software selection, and system size and resources. A discussion of the issues related to these problems is presented herein to facilitate the development of more comprehensive systems to manage the automation of infrastructure asset management systems (AMS).