Case Studies in Cross-Asset, Multi-Objective Resource Allocation

Transportation agencies face a complex set of challenges as they make cross-asset resource allocation decisions. Such decisions entail deciding how much to invest in an agency’s roads, bridges, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), and other traffic and safety assets to achieve a variety of competing objectives, such as improving pavement and bridge conditions, increasing mobility, and enhancing safety.

The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 921: Case Studies in Cross-Asset, Multi-Objective Resource Allocation extends and implements the results of NCHRP Report 806: Cross-AssetResource Allocation and the Impact on System Performance. Case studies were used to illustrate key issues in implementing a cross-asset resource allocation approach, and the lessons learned were then used to improve the guidance and tools developed in NCHRP Report 806.

In addition, a web tool was developed to enable the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in the optimization step of the implementation process and to demonstrate use of a web service that transportation agencies can use in their own web applications to automate DEA analysis.