Administering Transportation Infrastructure Project Delivery, Using Gateway Systems

The development, operation and maintenance of Transportation Infrastructure (TI) consume sizable monetary resources and have long term impacts on the business environment and society alike. To streamline the TI development and maintenance decision-making process, various optimisation tools can be utilised under Transportation Infrastructure Management Systems (TIMS); yet, their actual practical application has been limited due to different reasons. The paper proposes the use of Infrastructure Gateway Systems (IGS) to enhance the overall TI development and maintenance management process. An IGS establishes a number of control points (or gates) throughout the life cycle of the TI asset to regulate its development and provide a basis for the life cycle management decisions. The methods of Dynamic Programming (DP), Markov chain process, and others, are incorporated to help establish optimised maintenance strategies. Case study TI projects are used to illustrate the fundamental concepts in the proposed approach. The IGS with its constituent optimisation components can provide TI maintenance agencies with proper and well-founded schedule for routine maintenance activities.