Identifying Factors to Improve Transportation Asset Management Program Sustainment: Applying Implementation Research and Change Management Principles

Abstract

Reauthorization of the national surface transportation legislation in the United States in 2012 included a requirement for agencies to develop transportation asset management (TAM) plans for the first time. Research on policy implementation and organizational theory has shown that agencies can respond to this kind of legislative mandate with ineffective efforts to achieve legitimacy, reducing the likelihood for program sustainment in the long term. Without sustainment, the benefits of TAM, which are mostly long term, may not be fully realized. The objective of this work is to identify factors that can improve the extent to which TAM programs are maintained within the business operations of departments of transportation (DOTs) by examining TAM implementation historically and through the lenses of policy and program implementation research and organizational change management theories. Ten factors were identified that can promote sustainment and longevity of TAM programs in the business processes of DOTs; the factors include characteristics of TAM programs or the availability and quality of human and other resources. Agencies can consider addressing the factors identified to enhance their implementation approaches with the goal of attaining long-term viability of their TAM programs. These factors provide a basis for formally addressing the social and organizational capital elements alongside the physical and technical capital elements of TAM implementation.

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