Page 7 - Road Maintenance Program 2022-23 | WashCo LUT

1. Asset Management Program

According to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO),
“Transportation Asset Management is the standard of practice for state DOTs and others to manage the
nation’s physical transportation assets to optimize investment decisions. Transportation Asset
Management is a strategic and systematic process of operating, maintaining, upgrading, and expanding
physical assets effectively throughout their lifecycle. It focuses on business and engineering practices
for resource allocation and utilization, with the objective of better decision making based upon quality
2
information and well-defined objectives.”
In order to effectively optimize the performance of the county’s transportation-related assets, the
Department of Land Use and Transportation actively manages a variety of features such as bridges,
culverts, and pavements through an integrated asset management program. In order to track and
maintain these assets, the county’s asset management team uses an array of tools, techniques and
methods including physical inspections, computer modeling, and database management.

Risk management is also a critical element to a successful asset management program. A variety of
threats to the transportation system can damage, degrade or destroy an asset, sometimes with little or
no warning. The failure of a transportation asset, either functionally or catastrophically, is a real
possibility which can have significant consequences. However, actively managing the transportation
system can minimize the exposure of risk to both the county as well as the users of the road and bridge
network.

The county’s systematic and deliberate approach to asset management is an attempt to identify
deficiencies early, select the right maintenance treatment at the right time, coordinate work to avoid
conflicts and take advantage of opportunities so that the risk of failure is reduced or eliminated.

Washington County Asset Management Team

Supervisor

Brian Irish, Asset Management Supervisor

Technicians

Jeremy Crop, Engineering Technician III
Sam Zaik, Engineering Technician III
Brian Senz, Engineering Technician II

2 Definition established by the AASHTO Subcommittee on Asset Management (January 2013)