Background

Current federal legislation requires all state DOTs to develop a risk-based TAMP that describes how the state’s roads and bridges on the National Highway System (NHS) “will be managed to achieve system performance effectiveness and state DOT targets for asset condition, while managing the risks in a financially responsible manner, at a minimum practicable cost over the life cycle of its assets.” The requirement to develop a TAMP was first established in federal legislation passed in 2012, commonly known as the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP‑21) Act. The TAMP requirement was retained in the subsequent federal legislation, commonly known as the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which also includes requirements for performance-based management. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was passed in 2021 and continued the requirement for risk-based TAMPs and added a requirement for states to consider extreme weather and resilience in the life-cycle planning and risk management processes and analyses. The FHWA established the rules that govern the processes that must be used to develop the TAMP, the minimum requirements that apply, the penalties for failure to develop and implement a TAMP, and the minimum standards for tools to support the TAMP development.

As defined by the Federal Highway Administration, a TAMP is a “strategic and systematic process of operating, maintaining and improving physical assets, with a focus on engineering and economic analysis based upon quality information, to identify a structured sequence of maintenance, preservation, repair, rehabilitation and replacement actions that will achieve and sustain a desired state of good repair over the lifecycle of the assets at minimum practicable cost.”

It was noted in the 2019 TAMP that because it typically takes several years for projects to be identified, programmed, and constructed, the results of the wholesale changes IDOT began to make to its planning and programming processes would not be fully realized for three to five years. More immediate changes began to be realized as the agency finalized its updated guidance on treatment selection to support its new preservation-based investment strategies. Three years after the 2019 TAMP was certified, the longer-term improvement in system conditions have begun to materialize.