Better State-of-Good-Repair Indicators for the Transportation Performance Index


Download Final Report

CAIT project no.: CAIT-UTC-008

Fiscal Year: 2012/2013

Status: Final

Rutgers-CAIT Author(s): Sue McNeil, Ph.D., P.E., University of Delaware, Patrick Szary, Ph.D.

External Author(s): Deb Miller

Sponsor(s): Cambridge Systematics, FHWA - RITA

Summary:

The goal of this project is to revise the Transportation Performance Index to better capture the role state of good repair and safety play in transportation infrastructure performance.  To accomplish this goal, objectives will be addressed including the exploration of alternative indicators for state of good repair that go beyond roughness and bridge integrity, alternative indicators for safety focusing on fundamental improvements, and the relationship between the new TPI and economic health.  The project will also weigh the indicators to capture state of good repair and safety as attributes of performance, compute the TPI for 2010 and 2011 using the original and new methods, and develop a relationship between the original and new methods. The end result is a revised TPI that can be used to assess the economic impact of maintaining the physical infrastructure in a state of good repair and safety improvements. In turn the TPI can be used to evaluate alternative infrastructure repair and improvement policies.