FY2025 Work Program

A number of factors are straining our transportation network: rising fatalities and serious injuries, aging infrastructure, widespread congestion, increasing truck volumes, growing population, higher customer expectations, demands to apply new technologies, and limited funding. These factors threaten the transportation network’s viability unless the region is able to more effectively and efficiently deploy financial resources to maintain and upgrade our existing assets. Performance based planning and programming and Transportation Asset Management (TAM) are two interrelated strategies in which the region can advance regional and statewide goals to enhance safety, maintain assets in a state-of-good repair, reduce congestion, and better meet customer expectations. Performance-based planning uses transportation network information to guide investment and policy decisions to meet desired performance objectives. TAM procedures, data, and analysis can be used to maintain and improve the region’s transportation infrastructure by identifying assets, monitoring conditions, and making improvements in a systematic manner that will minimize life cycle costs.

A performance-based process includes coordination and collaboration with external partners along with transportation network data collection and analysis. Performance-based plans identify strategic objectives, set targets, make programming recommendations, undertake monitoring and adjustment, and report and communicate outcomes. Performance-based planning fulfills and coordinates federal Transportation Performance Management (TPM) requirements by measuring, evaluating, and reporting on the impacts of resource allocation decisions on the performance of the multimodal transportation network. Performance-based planning was one of the most transformative elements of the MAP-21 federal transportation legislation. It was continued and reinforced in the FAST Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Through these regulations, state DOTs, MPOs, and transit operators are held to a higher-level of performance accountability.

TAM engineering and economic analysis tools evaluate system data to guide performance-based decision making on how limited financial resources can best be deployed in the region’s Long-Range Plan (LRP) and the Transportation Improvement Programs (TIPs). Asset management plans should identify a lowest life-cycle cost (LLCC) for the maintenance, preservation, repair, rehabilitation, and replacement actions that will achieve and maintain a desired state-of-good repair; and be used in project selection to help meet TPM performance goals. TAM plans and decision-support tools must know what assets are in place, their current condition, their expected performance over time, and how the data can be linked to engineering and economic performance measures. Assets include roads, bridges, rails, traffic signals, various roadside features, transit vehicles and stations, rail track, transit administration and maintenance facilities, signals, and non-revenue vehicle fleets.

DVRPC works closely with NJDOT, PennDOT, SEPTA, NJ TRANSIT, and DRPA/PATCO to establish strategic objectives for managing and improving their assets. Staff will work with the DOTs, transit operators, and authorities as they use performance-based planning and programming to advance their TAM plans, safety plans, and develop and implement the TPM requirements. DVRPC will be involved in the development of these processes, working cooperatively with stakeholders to obtain agreement on data structures, performance measures and targets, strategic funding allocation methods, local system data collection, and data sharing and reporting procedures. In New Jersey, the Capital Investment Strategy is the mechanism that NJDOT uses to link asset management to the capital programming process. In Pennsylvania, PennDOT Connects and asset management help to guide the capital programming process. Our partners hope to extend performance-based planning and TAM systems to cover all infrastructure owners and operators in the region, including turnpikes and authorities, counties, and municipalities.

DVRPC will provide input and guidance to our partners as they develop and expand on performance-based planning and TAM processes and utilize them to identify cost-effective improvements to maintain and enhance the region's transportation network. DVRPC has developed various memorandums of agreement with planning partners that cover data sharing, target setting and monitoring, collaboration, and implementation of the performance-based planning and programming process. DVRPC relies on asset owners and operators to share their data on asset age, design, condition, and improvement costs by treatment type. The parties recognize that data does not currently exist for all asset categories or that it may exist in formats that are not readily usable by an asset management system.

DVRPC prioritizes system preservation in the Plan, the Congestion Management Process (CMP), and project evaluation criteria for the Plan and TIPs. The commission has built a website, www.dvrpc.org/TPM/, which tracks the various TPM metrics and performance relative to associated targets. Staff is incorporating TPM data into the Tracking Progress dashboard (www.dvrpc.org/trackingprogress/), which compares how the region is doing relative to Long-Range Plan goals. Staff will use DOT and transit agency asset management data for system-level investment analysis, as needed.

Completion of this project may require the purchase of equipment or services.

In a cooperative effort with the owners/operators of the various transportation assets, in particular NJDOT, PennDOT, member counties, SEPTA, NJ TRANSIT, and DRPA/PATCO (and possibly the turnpike authorities):

1. Hold a workshop with subject matter experts and regional partners and develop a short memorandum on the potential for present-day induced development and demand effects from new road and transit system expansion projects.
2. Evaluate proposed transportation projects using the Plan-TIP Project Evaluation Criteria, including the use of bridge, pavement, and transit asset management system data in project selection.
3. Work with planning partners to update USDOT TPM performance measures and targets, analyze current conditions and project likely future conditions, monitor and report on performance through DVRPCs TPM webpage. Incorporate data related to TPM metrics, including five-year trends and relevant geographies, to DVRPCs Tracking Progress website.
   • Coordinate with the Office of Safe Streets on the annual development and adoption of regional safety performance targets.
   • Coordinate with the Congestion Management Programs and Office of Freight and Clean Transportation on the biannual development and adoption of urbanized area CMAQ Congestion and CMAQ Emissions targets.
4. Participate in the development and use of the various partner performance-based plans, including state DOT and transit agency Transportation Asset Management Plans (TAMP) and Transportation Safety Plans. Incorporate performance-based planning and asset management into the region’s long-range financial plan. 
   • Identify and categorize all transportation assets along with their condition data. 
   • Identify typical costs for maintaining and preserving existing assets.
   • Identify strategic objectives, including stakeholder and public expectations and desires.
   • Define those asset condition values that would trigger when to make a particular investment (such as preservation, rehabilitation, reconstruction, replacement, or capacity enhancement).
   • Analyze asset data to determine when to implement the most cost-effective action for a specific asset using an LLCC approach.
   • Coordinate with the CMP, including sharing data and methods.
   • Utilize the asset system processes and data to develop draft TIP and Plan updates.
   • Develop system performance reports. 
5. Participate in NJDOT’s Problem Intake Process once it is updated.
6. Coordinate with member counties and cities, and DOTs, on the collection and validation of data on local transportation assets, as requested.
7. Track how technology and process innovations are changing the nature of asset management and transportation infrastructure design, project delivery, lifespans, and maintenance needs.

1. Technical Memorandum(s) detailing USDOT TPM performance measures and targets.
2. Update to Transportation Performance Management website, and data integration into the Tracking Progress dashboard.
3. Summaries of TIP-LRP Project Benefit Evaluation Criteria results for candidate projects, as needed.
4. New or updated memorandum(s) of agreement with planning partners, as needed.
   
5. Discussion of innovative approaches to asset management in the Update: Connections 2050 Plan.

Member counties, state DOTs, and transit operators.