| Financial constraints are the most commonly recognized and major constraints identified in Regional Transportation Plans (RTPs). However, fully functioning benefit-cost analysis (BCA) procedures that lend credibility and responsibility to the transportation investment decisions have not been widely adopted for RTPs. Therefore, there is a recognized value in illustrating the gap between projections of our transportation needs and the financial resources available to meet them from a BCA perspective. On the other hand, increasing claims have been advanced for asset management as a promising new approach to infrastructure management, and asset management has been seen as an effective response to the fiscal challenges confronting the United States' transportation infrastructure. Realizing all these opportunities and challenges, this thesis describes and defines the financial analysis gaps in the current regional long-range transportation planning practices and demonstrates the application of a hierarchical decision analysis framework for managing existing regional transportation infrastructure cost-effectively. Specifically, this research uses the concepts of Benefit- Cost Analysis (BCA), Multi-Criteria Assessment (MCA), and package solutions, Highway Economic Requirements System (AHP) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as asset management tools, and uses case studies as research method, to achieve the objective of providing a framework for rigorous analysis of investment strategies for maintaining and improving the existing regional highway infrastructure. |
