Official highway agency roadway inventory data sets are almost always duplicated in other agency systems, creating obvious inefficiencies and opportunities for inconsistency and also hindering interdepartmental co-operation and decisions based on enterprise-wide quantitative analysis. The paper uses examples from North American state highway agencies to show how joined-up highway inventory management systems integrate data across disciplines (saving money and improving data quality). The highway network inventory provides a highway data lifecycle framework corresponding to the highway management lifecycle: planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance. Different disciplines data sets are associated with the core network, and thereby kept synchronized, using one or more linear referencing methods. Disciplines have different views of the whole system, seeing the network and associated assets in the way that best supports their needs. Sharing the core highway inventory and synchronizing departmental data improves data quality throughout the organization and supports cross-cutting analyses that can be used to drive system-wide investment decisions. The joined-up inventory database is a useful hub for different departmental data sets and a foundation for investment planning and highway system governance. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. 0612AR242E.
Abstract