Framework for Aggregating Highway Asset Performance Measures

Transportation infrastructure engineers and managers have realized the importance of appropriate performance assessment and its impact on overall infrastructure performance and condition. The need for robust, comprehensive, and informative performance measures requires further research and study. Recently, the Center for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure at the Transportation Institute of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University proposed a flexible framework to aggregate condition measures for different highway infrastructure assets and to translate the measures into corridor health indicators. Health indicators for one asset are aggregated into an associated asset health rating, and all asset health ratings are combined into a corridor health rating. This paper modifies this framework to develop a robust performance assessment method that can be used to determine the impact of investment decisions on various dimensions of performance at the corridor level. Instead of aggregating health indicators of an asset into one asset health rating, the method proposes aggregating similar health indicators of different assets into the associated corridor health indicators to develop corridor performance measures. The application of the methodology on a segment of Interstate 81 suggests that the modified approach enables consistent monitoring of different health indicators at the corridor level. The corridor indicators are homogeneous (combined from similar health indicators of different assets). The practicality of the approach is illustrated through its application in a resource allocation example. The results show that decision makers can use the framework as a guideline to allocate resources across different highway assets.